


Second Chance

by oONightmareOo



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: M/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-28
Updated: 2017-04-02
Packaged: 2018-02-10 18:11:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 29,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2034978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oONightmareOo/pseuds/oONightmareOo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cloud travels back in time to the point where he was born. Cloud works to save his once upon a time idol but Jenova knows and works to stop it from happening. Rating may change to M in future.</p><p>So, uh, changed the main pairing.  Apologies.  Got really into the fivesome and somehow the chapters started flowing into being this pairing.  Blame fanfiction ^.^'</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Travel Through Time

                Cloud had no clue how he had ended up in this cave.  All he knew was that there was a soothing voice calling to him from further in.  Yet, what he  _felt_ rather than heard was the voice calling to him, as he couldn't for the life of him figure out what the voice was saying.  It seemed more like a senseless babble rather than words but something told him that it was indeed a language - one he had never heard before.

                "You have finally arrived-" the same voice that was babbling before spoke to him as he walked through the cave.  He was amazed that he could even make that out as it sounded like the same person saying the same thing multiple times but not in sync.  Almost as if the voice was being overlapped with many voices that sounded exactly like it but not at the same exact time.  It almost gave him a headache listening to those four words that was echoed by the voice even though it has been over a minute since it spoke.  "Hero of the dawn, healer of worlds-" the headache was beginning to form as he attempted to make out the words.  "Beloved of the Goddess-" Cloud had no clue what the voice was talking about.  Why was it referencing the epic, Loveless?  "But you seem different-"

                "I have no clue what you're talking about.  Who are you?"  Try as he might, he couldn't get rid of his curiosity enough to even  _think_ about leaving.  The pull he had felt before was leading him even further through the cave until he found a green patch of grass (when was the last time he had seen that?  He couldn't remember) with a shrine like structure leaning against the cave wall, after being partially uprooted from the grass.

                "You are not the Hero, are you."  Stated, without a hint of questioning in her voice, a nearly transparent woman stepped out of the wall where the shrine was leaning against.  What Cloud could see of her was that her eyes held many contradictions within them, life and death, love and hate, curiosity and indifference, wilderness and tamed, rage and quietness.  Her hair, though looking wild and as if she was in dire need of maintenance for it, looked silky smooth and beautiful beyond compare.  Her figure, though not the hourglass Cloud was used to from Tifa and the other girls he interacted with on a near daily basis, was a thing of beauty, without a blemish or imperfection on her skin.  She wore what looked like a dress that he had once seen when he glimpsed a few statues in a wealthy man's garden, Cloud believes that he was told that they were called togas. "No, the Hero was much more impressive.  You- you're nothing but a small chocobo.  Hero Sephiroth was an imposing beauty.  Why, in Gaia's name, are you here chocobo?"

                "Uh, you called me here?"  Cloud was quite annoyed.  The lady calls him here then says she didn't want him?  Then gives him a ridiculous nickname?  Seriously...  "Sephiroth is no longer alive, miss.  He went insane quite a few years ago."

                "I don't want a chocobo!  You won't even be able to undertake this task!  Only the Hero is able to!"  The woman smiled though she sounded rather angry.  "Oh well, I guess I could send you to get the Hero, couldn't I?"

                "Miss?  I don't think I'd be able to get Sephiroth to come here without resurrecting him.  If I did that, he would undoubtedly try to kill even more people."  Cloud was starting to believe the woman was an insane ghost that wanted Sephiroth for her own perverse reasons.  After all, the woman probably held some sort of fondness for making stronger people her servants.

                "Call me Diana.  You could also refer to me as goddess-sama, mistress, or even your majesty.  Actually, please do call me goddess-sama."  She seemed to revel in the idea even has her expression showed distaste.  "I am the goddess that governs over humans."  That explains the conflicting emotions.  But should he really believe this ghost?  "I am the younger sister to Gaia.  If you do not believe me, perhaps you'd like to ask her yourself?"  She motioned towards the grass.  "But we are wasting precious time speaking.  Each moment we dilly dally, Gaia gets closer and closer to dying.  Not only has she lost precious energy because of Shinra, which would take years to get to even a tenth of the normal amount, the evil witch Jenova is tearing up her system from inside the lifestream."  The more Cloud listened to Minerva, the more childish she sounded.  He wondered if it was because of the isolation the shrine provided.  "So, you're going to go back in time and prevent the Hero from dying!"  She said, almost suddenly.  Cloud didn't even have time to react as she forced him to lay down on the grass.

                "Wait!  What are you talking about?"  Cloud tried to resist her forceful shoves - for such a transparent woman, she was stronger than Tifa - to get clarification on what she was saying.

                "Oh, don't worry your blond head one bit, little chocobo.  Your body will be safe here with me.  I'll even inform my past self that you're going to be there and will need protection in case the witch finds out."  She forced him in a laying position, holding him there as he struggled to sit back up.  In a frustrated tone, she quickly said the last words ("Now,  _go_ to  _sleep!_ ") before he passed out.

                The next words he heard when he opened his eyes was a male voice saying "Congratulations, Mrs. Strife, it's a healthy boy."

...

...

                The first few years of his new life, he spent in complete and utter disbelief.  His mother, a woman he did not believe he would ever see again, worried over him.  He refused to act like the baby he mentally was not, therefore she believed something must have been messing with his brain, an abnormality.  Doctors were soon a constant thing that he saw as his mother used her small wealth as the sister of the mayor in Nibelheim to get him treatment.  When he saw Diana again four years after his rebirth, though she looked quite different and it was only in passing, he realized it wasn't a dream.  He spoke for the first time, having believed before that he wouldn't have been able to say anything to her and be heard, his 'first word' being a simple quiet "sorry."

                Though his mother was relieved to finally hear his voice no matter how much it confused her that he was apologizing, her overexcitement caused her to push him onto the village children.  It seemed as if they wanted to get to know him before their expressions became blank and they rejected his existence.  Even Tifa, who was his cousin and had a crush on him in his previous life (though he was quite certain the mayor was not his uncle in his previous life), ignored him.

                "What happened, Cloudy?" His mother seemed genuinely confused as to why he returned to her home with dirt and twigs stuck to his body.  He suddenly remembered how easily she daydreamed.

                "I tripped." She didn't even question why he was able to speak properly, though he was only four, or how he knew large words that he used sparingly around her.  He was still mystified as to how this whole dream was possible.  "Mom, I want to-"

                "I thought I asked you already to call me mommy, Cloudy."  She said with a hurt expression covering her face.  She almost looked ready to cry.

                "Mommy," she looked relieved as he said that as quietly and reserved as usual.  "I want to join SOLDIER."  The relief seemed to crumble almost immediately before she forced a smile.

                "And why is that, Cloudy?"

                "So I can be strong enough to protect you, mommy."  Cloud said as seriously as he could, though he knew no one could take his four year old self seriously simply because of how childish his voice sounded, how completely childish he looked.

                "All you need to do to protect mommy is to stay with me, Cloudy." Her real smile was back as she stood up and ruffled his hair.  "After you go take a bath.  Mommy loves Cloudy but she loves a clean Cloudy more."


	2. Planning

                If there was one thing Cloud understood from his past life, it was that agility and flexibility worked much better than brute force when you had a smaller body than your opponent. He also knew for absolute fact that, to be a cadet in SOLDIER, he needed to join when he has the body of a fourteen year old to actually get in. The younger you were, the easier it was to mold your mind and body into the perfect mindless drone. So Cloud trained. None of the kids of the town wanted to play with him, no doubt because of something he had done when he first spoke to them, but his mother wanted to see him get along with the other kids. So, under the guise of going out to ‘play’ with the other towns-children, he went into the forest to train his body so he would have abilities to make even Yuffie jealous. He felt bad lying to his newly remembered mother but he had observed her for a while and noticed she was prone to daydreams that caused her to freeze in whatever task she was performing, stare in one place for almost hours on end, blink a few times in a row, then walk off to find something else to do. It was quite strange the first time he watched her do it while washing the dishes, staring at a crack on the wall, before dropping the plate back into the water and grabbing the dusting supplies without even drying her hands and continuing with that task. Only when she was done with that did she turn back to the dishes and finish those. After being distracted five more times.

                As Cloud trained, he could feel the things he hadn’t felt since before he forgot himself. Muscles straining to keep up with him, pain when he worked with a muscle for too long, pain when he fell from the limb of a tree after misjudging the distance and slipping, among the few things that he reveled in. It felt like forever since he felt the pain in his muscles for simply moving around. So he pushed himself faster, further, certain that now he could possibly race a Nibel wolf on equal footing – not that he’d try, those things were fairly violent towards humans if it managed to see one and trying to race a Nibel wolf sounded near suicide with how scrawny he was and without a sharp weapon. Any lone person without SOLDIER and mako enhancements might as well pray to a deity or hope beyond hope that a Nibel dragon was hungry for a snack and that you weren’t on the menu.

                But all nice things end with the passing of the day and he felt even more accomplished this day than any other day. He had been keeping up training for flexibility and speed for a little more than five years now, starting not too far off of his ninth birthday. He no longer held baby fat and looked like one of those kids that he’d always wondered if they had freakish metabolism or not, skinny and most clothing loose no matter what size they wore. But he could feel what meagre muscles he could develop at this age slowly honing to do the tasks which he has placed for them. He had almost climbed all the way up to Shinra Manor, though he was taking quite the roundabout way through trees and rocks. Almost three-fourths of the way up, he decided to turn back after looking at where the sun was situated in the sky, deciding that three-fourths was enough for a roundabout trek through the woods when working on these subjects, especially considering his age. When he had first started, there had been many… ‘rage-quits’, as Cloud recalled them being called by Cid. The man had some strange words for things but they were, as a general rule, usually accurate. Continuing with the ‘rage-quit’ thought, it had once gotten so bad that he refused to even look at the forest for nearly a week as he tried to ignore the fact that he was not anywhere near the abilities of his past-future-self and he was absolutely certain that the gods (or, in this case, goddesses) enjoyed fucking up his life. Not that he’d use that word choice anywhere near his apparent mother.

                As Cloud wiped off the sweat he had accumulated during the hike up and journey down, he walked calmly through town. No one bothered to look at him, only his mother being able to see him as not a nuisance. Honestly, he was used to attention now. Where there was people, there was staring and pointing and hushed whispers of pride of being able to see their planet’s savior. Now there was ignorance, glares, prices of things would suddenly shoot up the moment he walked anywhere near the small stores in the town (what was once a 10 Gil bauble became a 450 Gil waste of space, so on and so forth), rude laughter whenever he tripped after remembering the sensation of being just _slightly_ taller, even people purposefully causing him to trip then blame him for bumping into them. After the bridge accident with Tifa, it seemed to get worse, with rocks sometimes finding their way to hitting him on the head and many more painful things. It seemed even animals were out to get him, as the pet dogs would take any chance that he wasn’t paying attention to them (usually because someone else had grabbed his attention) or when he was walking back home to run straight at him, snarling and growling the whole time to jump at him to try to attack him. Cats would scratch any skin he left bare. Birds seemed particularly vindictive as they had the ability to fly into his hair and face and scratch and peck there. So far, the only living beings that didn’t seem to be out to get him was the Planet itself and Nibel wolves, though he really didn’t want to risk anything when it came to the latter. Those things were gigantic and fast for someone without enhancements, impossible to take on alone. Though Cloud thought it might be rather neat if one bonded with him as they do in the myths he only managed to hear if he stood behind a tree near the ‘Story Pit’, as it was called.

                In one such story, there was a King of the Nibel wolves, seeming to be the last of his kind as the rest of the wolves were hard to find during the Dark Age, who bonded with the fairest maiden in Nibelheim. No one believed the story, it was too fantastic for it to have happened after all, but, in between taking bites of s’mores created while listening to the story, the kids couldn’t help but talk about it over and over, thinking up names they may have given their new ‘pet’ wolf and the things they wanted to be able to do with the beast. The story ended with the maiden having saved the subjects of the Wolf King from a generic bad guy then, on the night of the blood moon, the maiden was transformed into a wolf and made the Wolf King’s bride. Now, their legend ends at a cave on the top of Mt. Nibel, one that leads directly through the mountain and never once connects to another cave network while it leads to the bottom and deeper still until you reach magma. That is where, supposedly, the god Fenrir was chained the third time. The first two failed times were unknown to any human. As deep as the cave is, the river Expectation had flown into a magma stream after melting the stone away.

                “Oh, Cloudy! This time you only have a few scratches on your face! Such improvement!” Cloud’s mother was in the entryway of the kitchen to greet the almost fourteen-year-old boy. To cover up his training as well as the human and animal abuse, he had merely excused his cuts and scrapes and bruises as simply hide and seek games that he played with his many ‘friends’ in the forest. When she had been alarmed over the ‘forest’ tidbit, he assured her that it was a ‘rite of passage’ of sorts and she soon laughed it off and often said how proud she was when he claimed he won the game, would offer unconditional support if he claimed he lost, and be concerned if he came home early with a limp or a grimace of pain and claim he had tripped so he was unable to play hide and seek with his friends. He felt horrible for lying to her, but he didn’t want her to think badly of him as well. Nor did he want her subjected to the same abuse. Or even knowledgeable of the abuse to begin with. As long as she was ignorant and as air-headed as he had grown used to, he was content. He was happy to have this chance to relearn his mother and her ways. After the incident on the cliff, he had completely forgotten about her. He felt even worse for forgetting about her than he did about lying to her.

                “I didn’t win. I was the second to last to be found.” He smiled at her, showing he wasn’t too torn up about this loss. “The last was Hayner.” Cloud didn’t even know if someone by that name lived in the village, no doubt his mom didn’t either. Heck, Cloud didn’t even know if someone had that name in the first place.

                “I’ll have to find this Hayner and congratulate him, to have won against my Cloudy. After all, my Cloudy is the best at that hide and seek in the forest game. Let’s have a congratulatory dinner anyways! What do you want tonight?” Cloud thought for a moment, knowing for certain that he needed to choose something cheap. Unfortunately, he couldn’t think of anything they both liked that was cheap. Cloud’s taste buds had become a strange twist of things from his past-future. Unfortunately, it had carried on to this life as well.

                “How about some cheesy rolls? You know, the ones from-“Cloud was interrupted in his quiet speaking. Unfortunately, with his unwillingness to speak or make noises for the first couple years of his life had backfired on him later on and his vocal chords weren’t as capable of loud noises as most other peoples were. Because of that, when there was too much noise or he was unwilling to speak, he had made up his own form of sign language - based on the sign language he was taught in his dream-like state by his worried mother that had checked quite a few sign language books out just to teach him and even hired a professional to teach them both when she could no longer understand what she was doing.  When he couldn't remember the proper sign, he just mimed it and his mom somehow always understood.

                “Yes, yes, Cloudy. I know which bakery, after all there’s only one. You’d think they’d have more imagination than to name it Nibel Baked Goods.” She playfully sighed, grinning as she poked Cloud on the stomach. “I’ll be right back then, Cloudy. Set up the table, I feel like chicken tonight~!” Cloud smiled before setting about doing the task of setting three spots. He didn’t understand why she had always insisted that there be a third spot at the table, no one ever visited because of him. Usually, on his birthday, she would do birthday wishes and presents before sending him up to bed. Every year was the same. “Happy birthday Cloudy! Here, open presents first!” “Cloudy, make a wish and blow out the candles!” One year had been the sparkler candles that never go out. She had laughed endlessly at Cloud’s confused expression but had never brought them back out. “Alright, time for bed! We have an early start tomorrow so you can celebrate your birthday with your friends!” Then she would sit at her spot that was across from Cloud’s and stare at the plate barren of food, completely spotless from her meticulous cleaning. Almost as if she were waiting for food to be placed upon it and someone to tell her they loved her in a way Cloud could not. Like she was waiting for someone to return home but has resigned herself that they never will. Cloud knew better than to ask about it after she flipped out after walking into the kitchen to see him sitting in that chair. It was the easiest chair to reach as it was the lowest and it never moved from the spot where it was slightly pulled out and ready to be sat in.

                Cloud set the table, knowing this might be the last dinner they have together. Tomorrow was his birthday. Yet it was special in a different way. It took two days to get from Nibelheim to Junon, using local transportation. Four days from today were SOLDIER cadet entrance exams. He planned to leave immediately after he finished his plans, knowing he’d do something stupid otherwise – he was fairly certain that waking Vincent up when he was basically a twig and claiming he knows Vincent from a past-future would be counter-productive. He didn’t know whether the ex-Turk would be willing to listen to him or be upset that his isolation was bothered by a fourteen-year-old brat spouting nonsense about a past-future. He didn’t want to chance it, plus there were sometimes some rather high level monsters roaming around Vincent’s area. For his plan to work, he needed to join Shinra and SOLDIER. But his mother had always shut down when he mentioned SOLDIER. Every single time his mom would mentally shut down, say that he was fine right where he was, and leave it at that. He didn’t remember whether his mom was this against him joining SOLDIER in the past-future – or would it be the past-past? He just faintly recalled hearing a woman’s voice that sounded not unlike his current mother’s voice saying “Follow your dreams Cloud” but he could be wrong. He usually was, honestly, especially when it came to his memories from around the tank event.

                One thing was for sure, the one thing he remembered. He needed to go to Shinra’s mansion anyways, even if he wasn’t going to wake Vincent.

                “I’m back~!” His mom’s voice called out as he took a seat, waiting for her to come into the dining area. “Man, you wouldn’t believe the lines Mr. Poultry pulled out of his butt this time!” Mr. Poultry was just the pet name they had given the man in charge of the poultry and fish shop. Not only did he sell bird meat, he looked kind of like a bird with his beak nose and weird walk. Plus, they couldn’t ever remember the long name he had – it sounded foreign, maybe Wutaian – unless he was in front of them with his name tag and they never pronounced it right; Cloud's mother because she had never learnt Wutaian and Cloud because he wasn't _supposed_ to know Wutaian. “He seemed rather desperate, I feel slightly bad for denying him.”

                It was no secret that Cloud’s mother was the most beautiful lady of the town, well… above the age of twenty, that is. Wherever she went, she was praised and complimented and flirted with to the point that Cloud felt terrible even existing to ruin her name. She had beautiful, wavy, luscious blonde hair that fell just below her shoulders, her exotic sea colored blue eyes bewitching any man and most women that met them. The only woman Cloud had yet to see stumble over themselves at her existence was the librarian, but he had even caught her looking at his mom for longer than was considered appropriate. She wasn’t exactly the skinniest woman but the way her body filled out more or less hid any chub she had elsewhere. But she was self-conscious of even that little bit of flab so she wore loose black shirts and, more often than not, a theme to everything else. If she wore that skirt that reminded her of the ocean, she’s also wear those earrings that looked like waves and those bracelets that looked like the tide coming in (so she said) then she’d put her hair up in a semi-bun, allowing strands to attractively fall around her face, and put in the ‘cute little fish’ hairpin that Cloud had only managed to get for her birthday by doing free labor at the accessory shop for two weeks – which included the abuse that he’d get for getting even a single detail messed up or by even being in the eyesight of the shop owner; mental, physical, and emotional.

                “Dinner is served, enjoy Cloudy!” Her smile seemed strained tonight, almost as if she just wanted to go hole herself up in a dark room and wallow in self-pity. Cloud didn’t spare it another thought, knowing if she wanted him to know anything she would tell him. All it took was patience. But it didn’t seem to be all it took this time, as after dinner was over and cleanup was taken care of, she bid him a good night and went to her room. Cloud was left there, wondering what had possibly happened, but soon decided to let it go before heading to bed also. He needed all the sleep he could get before he left tomorrow.


	3. Leaving

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I changed a few things, including Minerva's name. I realized that Gaia was sometimes called Minerva so I changed Minerva's name to Diana.

                “You know, this is exactly how your father left me, Cloudy.”  He was startled by his mother’s voice when he had been on his way out of her bedroom.  When he had woken up, he had been all for just leaving and going through with his plans.  But when he got to the front door, he felt like he’d regret not giving his mom one last goodbye.  So he had gone back up the stairs, his steps near silent even in the dead silence of the room, opened the slightly creaky door to his mom’s room, put a kiss on his mom’s cheek after a little hesitance, whispered a soft goodbye, and left.  Or, almost left.  Then she spoke up and moved her comforter around to sit up.  “He thought I was asleep, I’m sure.  I thought he was going out hunting, like always.  He always did say that there was a certain thrill to hunting, like when the arrow or bullet – he never could decide which one he liked more – hit its intended mark.  So I let him say his whispered farewell and kiss my cheek then walk out the door.  I didn’t know he was going to go join SOLDIER.  He disappeared from my life for nearly two weeks, then sent me a letter saying he didn’t make it through the tests to be a real SOLDIER but he had joined the regular army.”  Cloud was surprised by this sudden story, especially since his mom avoided talk about his father like the plague - then the story sounded alike to the one he remembered of himself.  “I was so angry at him but I also knew his reason for leaving.  He found life in this small village to be excruciatingly boring.  So I didn’t respond to any of his letters, even after I found out I was pregnant with you.  Then the letters stopped coming, four months and fourteen years ago exactly – four months before you were born.  I received an official letter from Shinra a week before I went into labor, stating that he wasn’t coming back home.  We didn’t even get to have an official marriage, you know?”  His mother was crying now, hiccupping and scrunching up her face so she could keep talking.  Cloud couldn’t watch anymore, taking quick steps to pull her into an embrace.

                They sat there for a while, Cloud waiting for her sobs to quiet down and even longer for her to release him from the tight hold she had on him.  “I’m sorry, mommy.”  Cloud chose his words carefully, knowing that she loved it when he still called her ‘mommy’.  She had been so disappointed when he started calling her ‘mom’ again but because of his age, she let it pass.  “But I have to go.  Gaia told me so.”  He also knew that his mother was a devout believer in the Lifestream and Gaia.  Even if it wasn’t Gaia who asked for it, in a roundabout way it still was.  “She wants me to save someone inside SOLDIER from hurting himself and the people around him.”  He knew that, in a way, he was lying.  He felt horrible for the parts that he was lying in, of course.  “She wants me to protect her.”  _Again._   It felt so hard not to say the ‘again’ but at the same time, he knew it would be more difficult to explain why the ‘again’.  So he refrained.  He wanted to tell this woman everything, knew that she would accept everything as fact, especially given his ‘strange’ childhood.  But he also knew he would be putting her in danger again.  He wanted to avoid that like it was Geostigma.  Then again, if the path he had chosen to go on worked, Geostigma would never exist.

                She pulled back, rubbing at her eyes.  “If it’s the will of Gaia, then I suppose I can’t keep you here, can I?”  She looked up at Cloud with a smile, before shooing him away from her bedside with her hands.  “I might as well give you the things that were found in your father’s things, Gaia knows I have no need for them.”  She pulled out a box from her closet, setting it on the bed and gesturing for him to have a look through it.  “While you do that, I’m going to go get a drink.  All this crying has made me thirsty.”  She grinned then walked out of the room.  He only started rummaging through it once he heard her footsteps on the stairs.  There was nothing too special, Cloud remembered from Zack’s memories that cadets weren’t allowed to keep anything bigger than a dagger and a few personal belongings – small and few enough to keep in a shoebox.  He didn’t remember having a dagger but that could just be another gap from before.

                Clothes, uniform (Cloud ignored the blood around what was obviously a bullet hole), a hunting rifle, photos of his mom with a man.  The man had deep blue eyes that shined in the pictures where he smiled, black hair that seem to be more unruly than Cloud’s had ever been, and a rather thin physique.  He was slightly shorter than Cloud’s mom, it seemed.  Cloud had to assume that this man was his father.  Cloud took one of the photos that showed his mom covering her mouth with one hand, ice cream in the other (melting and ready to fall off of the cone with the angle it was being held), obviously finding something to be absolutely hilarious, while his father was laughing too, but in a position that looked like he was the one telling the joke and his ice cream was just left to the tip of the cone.

                “Heh heh, I remember that day.  Your father’s friend was the one who took all the pictures of us, he was always interested in photography.  About the same time I got the letter from Shinra, he fell ill with some sickness that was untreatable here but with the right hospital they could treat it.  So now he’s in a hospital in… Cosmo Canyon, I think.”  Cloud nodded in understanding then went through the rest of the box, noticing at the bottom what looked like marbles.  “Your father always did have such strange hobbies.  I guess after he joined Shinra, he took up marble collecting too because one of his letters said that he kept finding little tiny orbs, slightly smaller than a normal marble, on the battlefield, though he couldn’t figure out why he enjoyed collecting them.”  When his mom held a red orb up, the sunlight that had just started filtering into the window shined on it.  Cloud immediately reached in and grabbed an icy blue one, just to make sure, and held it up to his face.  He was right.  His father and mother didn’t know, more than likely a lot of those who were in charge of or were in the grunt force didn’t have a clue, but Cloud knew.  He knew because he, himself, had started picking up marbles.  Most of the time, they were normal ones, but every once in a while a small Materia was inside the group.  These were the Materia that had just been formed from the Lifestream, but at the same time they were a higher level.  Cloud never understood how it worked but he seemed to be the only one who noticed the powers hidden inside the small orbs.  They were never anything big like a Summon and were usually just the standard fire, ice, lightning, etc.  “Brr, hey Cloudy.  Did it get cold all of a sudden for you too?”  He looked up and noticed her shivering in her thin pajamas, then behind him to notice frost trying to form on the window.  When he set the marble back down, everything went back to normal.  Cloud didn’t feel a change at all.  “Weird.  I wonder if the house is haunted.  Anyways, take what you want.  I know I can’t stop you from going, you’ve been going on and on about how you’re joining SOLDIER ever since you first started speaking.”  She ruffled Cloud’s hair before setting off for the bathroom to take a shower.

                So Cloud took what he knew he could.  Of course, he grabbed all the marbles at the bottom of the box and placed them in a little marble pouch that he had used to hold the marbles he had found in the forest – unfortunately, those were the real marbles, no Materia in his collection before today.  But he could use the real marbles to hide the Materia.  Plus, he was certain that he couldn’t hold the Materia without activating it again.  Diana had told him, when he had physically turned the age of seven, that he would have certain advantages this time.  Materia could be one of those advantages but he wasn’t in a place where he could test it.  _Yet._   He also grabbed a designed dagger, which looked almost of Wutai make.  Cloud knew it was Midgar-made because of the type of metal used, but it was a rather convincing double.  After tucking the photo into a hidden pocket inside his shirt, hiding the dagger inside his waistband, tying the pouch to a belt loop, and putting the shoes within the box – for some reason, it was his exact size, which was weird – on and lacing them up, he was ready to go.  Well, almost ready.

                “Happy birthday, Cloudy.”  His mom handed him a small box after he walked out of her room.  “I hope you have fun and kick some ass.  Don’t do anything I wouldn’t.”  She winked at him, even as she looked about to cry again.  He opened the box, realizing immediately that it was a bracelet of good luck – he had seen one when he was in the other time, on his way through Junon, and bought it on impulse – and gave her one last hug and kiss.

                “I’ll miss you, mom.”  Cloud whispered truthfully, before letting go.  His mom stepped back and hit him on the chest with the back of her hand, a playful whack at best.

                “I’ll miss you too, now get going before I cry again.  Then you’ll have to wait another couple hours to leave and I just might not let you.”  Cloud chuckled before walking out the door as she threatened him some more, more than likely trying to get over the fact that he was leaving for more than just a day now.  He already knew that she would more than likely skip over setting his father’s spot at the table, instead just setting up his and waiting for him to come home.  But first, to Shinra mansion.  “Just remember, follow your dreams, Cloud.”  He turned back to his mom, waving at her in the doorway, before setting off at a jog to Shinra mansion.  He knew his mom wasn’t going to realize that he wasn’t going the right direction.

                But that didn’t matter.  What mattered was burning the notes and books and fake documents in the library, and having this new collection of Materia would help with the burning.  Once he got to the mansion, he tied the bracelet he had gotten around his right wrist.  In the past-future, he had already realized that he could put those Materia inside one of the bracelets because of the material that made the bracelet.  It was simply horse hair bathed in ‘holy water’ then wrapped loosely into a braid with another horse’s hair, which was not bathed.  If you placed enough Materia inside it, it would tighten and none of them could possibly slip out.  For that, you needed eight Materia of around the same size.  So he counted out eight, attempting to get ones of different types, but ended up with two fire Materia, a lightning, two blizzards, what he thinks is a cure, and two supports (though he was unsure of what type quite yet).  Still unsure of whether the cure was a cure, after all he hadn’t seen one so small, he inserted them in the places that had breaks between the two types of horse hair.  It looked more natural that way, after all these didn’t grow like normal Materia.  Plus, if he just pushed it off as ‘my girlfriend back home gave this to me before I left’ then no one would question it more than necessary.  What they would push was the ‘girlfriend’ so Cloud needed to make up some more stories than just that or make it up on the spot.  He’d always worked best under pressure – at least, he thinks he does.  Then again, he wasn't sure that that anyone would ask.

                Time to see how well this pressure would work for him.


	4. Travelling Through The Mansion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'VE FIGURED OUT THE FORMAT THINGY!!!!! YES! VICTORY!!!! Anyways, enjoy the new chapter!

                It was almost scary how quickly the low level terrors swarmed around him.  But he had come prepared for it, so he wasn’t really all that surprised.  He would use the Materia, maybe burn them or freeze them, but he was unsure how well he’d be able to control the Materia.  Or even if he could in the first place, since the whole room had dropped nearly thirty degrees in seconds by just _holding_ the small marble.  As he debated his choices in a quick moment, he decided simply to run past them and hope they didn’t think of him as a convenient snack or anything.  Soon, though, he heard many voices bouncing around his head.

 

                _Kill… Kill…_

_Fresh meat… yummy…._

_Cute, prolly tastes sweet too…_

_Do I even want to bother…?_

_Why would I miss this fun chase?!  Ahahahahaha!_

All in all, it was slightly disturbing and he was really confused about why he heard these slightly crazed, different toned voices echoing through his mind.  He turned his head to toss a glance back and sure enough, five monsters were chasing after him, all with slightly different motives based on their speeds.  He honestly wished he could freeze them in place right now without lifting a finger.  Cloud’s sprint slowed down to a jog then to slow walking when there was a sudden silence, both in his mind and behind him.  He looked back, seeing perfect ice sculptures of the beasts they once were.  “Amazing… Just by a single thought…?”  This so called ‘boost’ was really amazing, even more so than he had originally thought.  In fact, it hadn’t really caught up with him that it wasn’t a weird dream.  He felt like he was in the same state as the first four years of this life – he honestly wished it wouldn’t take four years to come to terms with this new revelation as well.  After catching the slight breath he was lacking, he continued to find the basement stairs, heading down after accidentally burning a bat looking monster.  He couldn’t honestly recall all the monsters he had fought, just the ones that were a pain in the ass to kill.

                The wooden stairs creaked eerily as he held up the bracelet to use the Materia glow to light up the space around him.  With the silence of the atmosphere, Cloud couldn’t help but feel like something was going to pop out of nowhere.  His nerves were strung tight as he kept his footsteps as quiet as possible, ready at any moment to lash out at anything that popped out of nowhere – whether it be with dagger, Materia, or fists.  When Cloud reached the opening for the hidden library, he couldn’t help but feel relieved that nothing had happened.  So he opened it, expecting to see the papers and books strewn about messily like he had seen before.  While less messy than when the General had been rummaging through it for answers, everything looked about the same.  So when his anger spiked at the lying documents, he wasn’t surprised when each and every piece of paper burnt to ash nearly immediately.  In fact, just to be careful, he imagined an icy breeze flowing through the room, checking every nook and cranny before coming back empty.  Next was… too risky.  He could wake Vincent up and have him do it himself but… that was also rather risky.  As long as he got to the reactor before Sephiroth, he should be able to… but would that be suspicious?  So Cloud forewent the side mission of his that he had set up to destroy Jenova.  As far as he knew, around this time, Jenova was being moved to the Mako reactor.  But it could be later than now.  The document he had seen by chance stating that, never said a specific date.  Just in August.  With everything being hectic for new SOLDIER recruits, it was more likely for Hojo to move after SOLDIER exams.

                Making his way out of the mansion, noticing how the monsters were still frozen and that no other monster was attempting to attack after that display of magical power.  As he picked his way between the ice sculptures, he felt whispers in the back of his mind, begging to be released from the icy prison.  Feeling faintly sympathetic, he set a mental timer for the ice to melt in five minutes.  He had no clue if it would work, honestly, but it seemed enough time to go upstairs, retrieve the key that led to Vincent’s room for future use, and to rememorize the combination.  He more than likely still remembered it, but after all the shocks from left to right, he wasn’t as sure as he’d like to be.  When he got to Shinra, there would more than likely be tape and permanent marker for him to use to make sure he didn’t have to go back upstairs.  In the meantime, he also let any stray paper or document of the abandoned mansion go up in flames as an extra precaution.  If he even saw a Post-It note somewhere, it was obliterated.  There was no room for error if he wanted to fulfill this mission.  A mission that still felt almost surreal and impossible.

                After gaining the key, he attached it to the leather necklace he had gotten from his mother a few years back on his birthday, though the original use was to hold onto the Nibel wolf fang he had found on the ground.  He had thought of other uses for it than a ‘good luck’ charm, but his mom had thought that was what it was and he had started to think of it as such as well.  Feeling the cold metal add weight to the string, he felt almost reassured, that he would be able to definitely come back and his mother would greet him with all of the airheadedness and smiles that he had grown used to.  There would be no flames – _that_ he was sure of.

                Finding the number was more difficult since he was inclined to burn every last sheet of paper he saw, but he managed to find a burning sheet of paper that held the number.  Quickly memorizing that before watching the ash disappear, he turned on his heel and headed back through the mansion quickly.  He glanced down the hall to see the monsters from earlier, still frozen but not as much as before, one or two waiting patiently while their bottom half was melting while the others were frantically attempting to get their bottom halves to cooperate with them.  Cloud couldn’t help the amused giggle – that he would deny was a giggle should anyone question him – when he heard the monster’s voices cussing up a storm.  He still didn’t know how he understood what was being said, it hadn’t happened before or with any animals – which were fairly close in relation to monsters – yet, so why was he hearing it now?  Though more, it felt like he was translating the monster speak into English.  Kind of like how he did when he learned Wutaian and would translate Wutaian into English and vice versa when asked to translate something.  Though now, he was certain his Wutaian was a little rusty.  After all he hadn’t practiced it in years.

                As he thought about language barriers, he had already made his way out of the mansion and was halfway to Rocket Town.  The only place with any _real_ transportation around here.  Nibelheim was great and all but the only way to get a vehicle (or pay for transport) was once you got to Rocket Town.  He knew his mother had added quite a lot of Gil to his bag, he could feel the difference in weight from when he had first packed it, and knew it would be more than enough to buy transportation to Costa Del Sol, where he would hitch a ride with a bit of coin on a cargo ship – if not just sneaking aboard and hiding in the cargo as he had done a few times before.  With his smaller body, he knew that he would be able to hide that much easier – especially without a gigantic sword.

                Sparing the single thought ‘ _let’s just hope that people are much more accommodating in Rocket Town and Costa Del Sol than the people in Nibelheim’_ barely any attention, he turned on the road that would take him directly to Rocket Town with no detours.


	5. Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3

                He was lucky in Rocket Town when he bumps into Cid.  The man didn’t recognize him, fuming silently at the kid with the audacity to bump into him, when Cloud did the smart thing and apologize near immediately – only faltering because this Cid Highwind wasn’t exactly like the one he had met while under the influence of Zack’s memories but he was fairly close.  When Cloud played up the guilt of bumping into the ‘stranger’, he could see that Cid was ready to run as he gave his final rejection of Cloud’s offers to help.  So Cloud pulled out the smile that even stopped the meanest ones in Nibelheim in their tracks and pulled out the line “Thank you so much, mister, for not punishing me.”  He knew he looked like he was daily beaten and, for the most part, it was true.  While he felt bad for pulling Cid along like this, he could already tell that no one else in the town would help him simply because they had already started glaring in his direction, angry murmuring even as they didn’t do anything since Cid was there.

                “What do y’mean, ‘punish’…?”  Even as Cid looked off to the side, avoiding the sight of Cloud smiling with relief, Cloud knew he didn’t need to explain.  So he changed the subject, asked if the man knew of any way that he could travel to Costa Del Sol for a ship to Junon.  Cid, at first, answered with his usual gruffness but started relaxing as he started feeling more and more pity for the abused blond – which was Cloud playing it up, bringing it more into focus than he ever had, and he felt horrible but knew it was necessary for him to get the foul mouthed man to show his kind heartedness that Cloud knew was underneath all that anger.  Cloud had had many first hand experiences after all.  He was surprised when it didn’t take much of the act of ‘hurt and defenseless’ before Cid stomped off, throwing over his shoulder “Follow me and don’ fuck anythin’ up, brat” before heading into a garage where a two-seater army-style buggy sat, clearing the passenger seat before hopping in the driver’s seat and starting it.  Cloud didn’t spare a second of deliberation before jumping in the passenger seat, looking to buckle up before remembering Cid didn’t approve of seatbelts.  Thus started the wild ride that was Cid’s driving.

                They made it to Costa Del Sol in record time, cutting off hours of what Cloud had guessed would be the travel time, which also explained why Cid’s hair was always in such a disheveled mess atop his head.  “So what’s a brat like you doin’ in a shithole like ‘Sol?”  Despite his speech, Cloud knew Cid was honestly curious, even if Cloud was currently attempting to tame his wild blond locks.

                “I need to get on a boat that heads to Junon.”

                “And what do you plan to do once there?  I’m fairly certain that the old coots in the fishin’ village aren’t hirin’, ‘specially not outsiders.  No one in Shinra is willin’ to hire a brat like you unless yer aimin’ for SOLDIER.”  When Cloud didn’t respond, Cid let out a low whistle.  “They’ll chew you up and spit you out like you was last night’s pork ‘n beans.  Y’know that, right?”  As much as Cloud didn’t like the doubt in his abilities, he felt touched that Cid cared enough to worry about him like that already.  And he felt guilty about relying on Cid so much, especially since he was acting it so much.

                “About that… I was hoping you’d be willing to help me find a ship that would take me there.  Nobody here seems to like the look of me…”  He made sure the right amount of disappointment showed through, slouching his shoulders and lowering his eyebrows, his lips curved downwards as he looked down at the ground.  All of this acting and Cloud was almost starting to believe it himself.  Didn’t change that he felt horribly guilty.

                After getting a small supply ship to accept Cloud’s passenger status (“And _why in Gaia’s name_ should I take this strange brat anywhere with me?  For all I know, he’s got rabies from one of them mounain’ wolves.”  “Because I fuckin’ asked ya to.  We can go _further_ in this ‘discussion’ but I doubt ya’d be able ta take me on.”  “Fine, Highwind, but you owe me one.  _Again._ ”), Cloud expressed his gratitude in the only way he could – promising to come back to repay Cid’s kindness and to properly thank him.  Of course, it was met with a sort of rejection but Cloud hadn’t expected much else from the pilot.  The ship captain informed him they were leaving first thing in the morning, no sooner, no later.  That worked for him, in all honesty.  It meant he could eavesdrop and see if anyone knew anything important.

                After that uneventful night, Cloud was the first to be on the ship in the morning, if you didn’t notice the captain sleeping in the box that housed all the equipment that made the ship run.  So Cloud found a spot where he could keep his body hidden from the crew, thanking all those times where Yuffie managed to force him into playing hide and seek with her (even if her real motive was getting his guard down so during the ‘chase’ portion of the children’s game, she could swipe a Materia or two off of him or someone they passed by).  He used a meditative strategy he had learned in Wutai at some point, one that was used by warriors on their travels – particularly the one that they took to pass on to adulthood –, which was a good way of gaining energy the way you would while you slept.  It wasn’t as effective as sleep was, but Cloud had lasted a whole month before collapsing in the past-future with this method.  He hadn’t gone near as long in this life, he knew how important sleep was for a child’s body even if it just brought back memories that messed with his sleep anyways.

                He kept his meditation up the whole way, ignoring the way the waves caused his stomach to roll, and when he stood up after they docked, he surprised many of the deck hands before he jumped off of the boat and onto the dock.  He ignored the way many of the sailors gave him a wide berth with glassy eyes before looking at him with annoyance and anger.  He had yet to figure out why that happened with every new person who saw him, but if he had a guess, Diana probably knew.  He hadn’t seen her in a while so he couldn’t ask.

                He looked around the place, wondering if there would be a sign showing where the test would take place.  Or maybe someone in SOLDIER gear standing around so he could ask.  Thank the Planet he didn’t see any long silver hair, he hadn’t yet figured out if he would be desensitized to the sight of Sephiroth.  Television was limited in Nibelheim and the few posters he got of Sephiroth weren’t really _him_ so it didn’t pull out much of a reaction from him.  He traveled further, leaving the portion of the fishing village and heading into the city of Junon, passing through the identification check quickly with how little information they had on mountain boys.  Cloud couldn’t help but notice that the officer in charge of checking him had a slight mako glow to his eyes and didn’t look at him with more than apathy and slight boredom.  “Excuse me sir.”  Cloud asked after turning around, realizing that this might be the only chance he’d get for information on anything.

                “Huh?”  The officer looked at him, confused.  “Did you say something?”

                “Yes.  I’m looking for where the SOLDIER cadet exam is at as well as the lodging for examinees?”  It took the officer – Haymish as his name tag said – a moment to decipher what Cloud had said in his quiet voice before the man raised his eyebrow and retrieved a sheet of paper.

                “I’m gonna warn you now, as you look like you might be taken off the field quickly.  Exams are fairly brutal and you have cadet-would-be’s, regular army re-takes, and the proctors coming after you.  Are you certain you want to go through with this, kid?”  Cloud remembered this warning.  It was very faint but he certainly felt a sense of déjà vu.  He looked in Haymish’s eyes for a moment longer, before recalling the hesitance that he felt after receiving this warning.  He didn’t feel it now.  Cloud nodded to answer to the question before taking the sheet of paper, which had in red marker a circle around one building and in green marker what looked like a gigantic plot of land.  “Green is where the exam is held tomorrow morning, be there by 0600 sharp.  The red is the lodging, as you can tell it isn’t too far and it’s a rather large building.  Used to be a science center but then they moved to the building that was being built for examinees because of its size –“Haymish pointed to the building a couple streets over from the red mark on the paper, which was much larger “- so Shinra switched the purpose of both buildings.  Dunno why the science division felt the need to have such a big building.  Anyways, good luck kid.  I’ll be disappointed if I don’t see you in my classes.”  With a pat to Cloud’s shoulder, he turned and went back to his post.  Cloud was touched that someone who he didn’t know and didn’t act for went out of their way to be concerned for him, as he just realized the warning was about, and even wished him good luck.  Cloud made sure to remember the officer’s name.

                First things first, get to the resting quarters provided so that he may have a room before anyone else gets there.

**_…_ **

                Sephiroth had many things he found tedious and unnecessary.  Paperwork being one of them.  Another would be having to take care of Zack’s messes whenever Angeal allowed his puppy to roam.  The most unnecessary and kind-of-annoying thing that he was required to do (don’t even try to argue that cleaning up after the mutt wasn’t a requirement) was being present at SOLDIER cadet exams.  Because of this, he had simply gotten aggravated and risen the requirements that he and the other proctors were looking for.  Yes, the great General Sephiroth had somehow become a proctor for exams.  He was unsure how he was suckered into it as well.  He had a theory that it had something to do with both Angeal and Genesis bribing him into it, which had afterwards become a part of his job as General once they found out that he was the reason the good SOLDIER cadets were brought in.

                So he had slowly added more and more to the list of things that the other proctors were required to look for just because his dislike for this event was growing with every year.

                Wait, back up some, Sephiroth wasn’t saying that he walked onto the field where all the cadets-to-be were.  Oh no.  No no.  That wouldn’t work.  All proctors were required to disguise themselves, just in case there was hero-worship or a crush on one of them.  Which made this event even more irritating.  As a general rule, the cadets-to-be weren’t that great anyways.  They were getting worse as time went on.  It was ridiculous.

                When Sephiroth had arrived on the field where he would brief the possible cadets-to-be on nearly a whole half hour early, he wasn’t expecting anything.  Nothing interesting would happen this year, just like the last year and the year before that and so on and so forth.  He didn’t want to deal with another boring session so he had already chosen a place on the field to haunt, one none of the cadets-to-be wanted to go into.  Because they didn’t want to go there, they didn’t believe that someone else would go there.  He had discovered this just last year, really.

                After waiting for almost ten minutes in the exact spot he expected to give his debriefing, a slow trickle of teenaged boys, tired from the early wake up, came in.  At 0600 on the dot, the gates that had been open to allow examinees to come in were closed.  A second after the lock had been placed on the gates, a kid who had been patiently sitting in a tree not too far away, before even Sephiroth had gotten there, dropped down from the high branch of the tree.  A rather peculiar looking kid, dressed from head to toe in black with only his hands and head showing outside of the plain black while his blond hair was shockingly bright in comparison.  Crouching to absorb the impact of hitting the ground, he seemed unaffected as SOLDIER and cadets-to-be stared at him before he migrated to the back of the crowd of examinees.  Once he had done that, Sephiroth’s sharp eyes on him the whole time, Sephiroth decided to start his speech.

                He went through the usual spiel, which included what was and was not allowed.  The examinees were allowed to use any way of fighting they may know and could bring weapons of their own into the field or use whatever weapons they could find strategically hidden around the facility.  There were no deaths or fatal injuries to be given but if someone felt as if they were fatally injured, they were to go to the medical tent set up just to the right of the building (which had certainly seen better days and currently most of it was seen on the ground rather than attached to the building itself – it was a favorite of both the examinees and the majority of the proctors to take each other out) and it would be taken as a withdrawal from the fight.  The fight would start five minutes after the whistle went off, proctors would join thirty minutes later.  So on… and so forth.  Sephiroth actually caught _himself_ zoning out.  He doubted anyone else would be but he managed to catch the blond kid from earlier looking around as if he was surveying his surroundings.  There was a red head further to the front of the group, looking around every once in a while to, presumably, check out the competition.  Other than that, there were the kids who were sleepily listening to him then there were the kids who listened to every word and pause he made like it would kill them not to.

                When Sephiroth noticed the blond look directly at him, he felt a shiver run down his spine.  It wasn’t a shiver of fear, nor one of cold.  In fact, Sephiroth didn’t understand the shiver.  Did he shiver… in anticipation?  No, that couldn’t possibly be it.  But those were the only three reasons he ever shook like that.  Fear and cold when he was younger and subjected to experiments nearly every day.  Anticipation had shown when he was in the Wutai war, when he had been alone and a troop of warriors had shown up.  He had shivered with anticipation at the oncoming fight, that he was certain that the fight would be a good one.

                Sephiroth blinked when he noticed that he had just finished his speech, then motioned for Angeal to blow the whistle.  Angeal stepped forward, looking over the crowd before his eyes seemed to also focus on the back of the crowd, a look of curiosity crossing over his eyes before he pulled the whistle to his mouth.  Sephiroth had already walked through the set of stairs at the back of the makeshift stage when he heard the whistle then a crowd of running footsteps, each going in different directions.  More than likely searching for weapons to arm themselves with or hiding spots to snipe from.  They wouldn’t get in like that but they didn’t know that, and if they did get in they were more than likely on the list of future Turks.

                “Man, was I the only one bored out of my mind while Seph was talking?”  A man with reddish brown hair sat on a bench supplied at the bottom of the stairs, looking as if he was just waking up.

                 “That’s not very nice, Genesis.”  Angeal began his scolding before he was waved off and ignored by Genesis.  There was a moment of silence as all three of them joined the other First SOLDIERs in changing their attire.  Sephiroth had to put his hair back in a low ponytail and leave it under his black hoody, the hood long enough to cover all of his features but his chin and mouth.  All of the proctors wore the same clothes, the black hoody, black pants, and boots that were made to have the pants be stuffed into.  Genesis thought it was boring and complained as often as he could but he still put it on, grumbling the whole way.  “Did anyone else notice the short blond in the far back?”

                “The one who dropped from the tree?”  Sephiroth asked, not really needing the confirmation.

                “He dropped from a tree?  Do you realize how tall these trees are around here?  How did he even get up there to begin with?”  Angeal looked concerned, almost like he was willing the timer to go off to allow them to leave so he could check the blond for injuries.  Now that Sephiroth thought about it, it wasn’t normal for someone who didn’t have enhancements.  Was it?  The blond had seemed rather used to the distance, even if the lowest branch was so high up Sephiroth could just barely place his palm on it.

                “What about him ‘Geal?”  Genesis was laying down on the bench now, having finished everything but lacing up the boots and pulling up the hood.

                “Oh right, didn’t he seem to set himself off from the other examinees?  Judging by his body posture, he didn’t mean to but at the same time he was hesitant to join the group.”  Angeal had moments where he only made sense to the select few (which consisted of Sephiroth and Genesis and, rarely, Zack) and it even took them a second to realize what he meant.

                “Like he wanted to but didn’t because he thought it would trouble them?”  Genesis ventured a guess, earning a nod.

                “I also observed that, when he appeared, the other examinees seemed to be angered by his presence.”  Sephiroth offered into the conversation, finding that one to be the strangest to him.  “Perhaps he has offended the majority of them.”

                “Have you seen where some of the examinees have come from Seph?  There’s even one that came from near Icicle Inn.  I doubt a kid like that had the time to offend _every single_ examinee over the course of a night.  Especially if he was up early enough to be waiting in a tree before even you got here!”  Genesis sounded disbelieving but, at the same time, curious of this new topic of conversation.

                “Well, either way, we'll find out by the end of the day what the mystery around him is.”  Angeal stated right before the timer went off, alerting everyone in the room (who had separated off into their own conversations) that it was time for even the proctors to set out.  Before leaving the locker room set up, they all flipped their hoods up and grabbed the generic paintball guns and dull swords that they were all to carry.  Now the only way to tell them apart is by build and fighting style, if they don’t speak.


	6. Exam Period

                Immediately after the whistle had gone off, the examinees around Cloud had run off to find weapons or a place to snipe from.  The only ones left after thirty seconds had gone by was a brunette who was bouncing around on the front of his feet, a red head that looked oddly familiar to Cloud who was whistling leisurely as he walked his way to what appeared to be a section of field, and Cloud himself.  Cloud watched as the red head disappeared over the more-than-likely-fake hill then as the brunette ran off in a random direction after playing a mini game of ‘eeny meeny mynee mo’ under his breath, before taking his time in walking back towards the gate that was locked and guarded.  After accidentally gaining the attention of the SOLDIERs that were guarding on the other side of the tall fence, Cloud turned to the right and followed the fence.  He didn’t yet know what he wanted to do, but he supposed finding a place for a makeshift home base was top priority.

                So he walked, every once in a while turning to sweep his eyes over his surroundings, until he heard a peculiar sound.  He hadn’t heard the sound of frogs in a while, especially not ones that weren’t mutated.  So he followed the sound, stopping at the edge of what appeared to be a small marsh, and observed the look of the place.  Knowing how dirty swampy areas were thought to be (though it wasn’t untrue), Cloud already knew everyone else was going to avoid this area like the plague.  Maybe if he had a gun, it would be a great place to snipe from seeing as the trees were thick at the top.  But there were other uses for trees and for muddy areas like this.  Cloud almost didn’t hear the gong for the five minutes to be over, he was so busy trying to make a platform on one of the tree branches so he could comfortably sit down and rest when he needed it.  He had just finished making the platform when he heard the ringing for the proctors to come out and start picking the examinees off.  So Cloud sat there, keeping silent for what seemed like hours but Cloud knew it was only a few minutes.

                His patience was rewarded (or was it punished?) with someone wearing all black gracefully gliding into the area that held the most water, where his platform looked over.  He waited as the figure seemed to survey the area, almost turning in a full circle, before heading to a spot of dry (or dry-er) mud on the far side of the swampy pond and sitting.  Cloud waited a moment more before realizing that the figure was falling into a meditative state.  If he waited a few more seconds for the person’s shoulders to relax, he’d be able to sneak out of there without being noticed.  It seemed like it was forever before Cloud noticed the newly relaxed state the supposed proctor was in, taking care to not rustle the leaves too much as he made his way around the large trunk then when he jumped to the tree on the opposite side.  He continued this way until he made it to the edge of the surrounding trees, surveying what was below and around before dropping to the ground gently and making his way to where he knew the other examinees were.  He had only watched the majority of the crowd head to what he supposed was the middle of the facility, where he knew the nurse station was.  Only the red head from earlier had appeared to head in the opposite direction, aside from himself.  As far as Cloud knew, the test could last a week, maybe more, so he needed to get ahold of care packages that Sephiroth had mentioned in his boringly long speech.

                Speaking of Sephiroth, it took all of his control earlier to stay in the tree when Sephiroth had shown up.  So he stared as the man took up a military stance on the platform, waiting and never taking his eyes off where the gates were.  Cloud himself had been there since the gates had opened, around four thirty, so he had been idly wasting his time by trying to get that leaf whistle thing to work when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye and stopped.  Sephiroth, in all his long haired, black leather wearing, commanding General, cat eyed glory, looking about half as threatening as he did in the past-future.  He didn’t know how that worked but Sephiroth now looked a lot like a plushie that Yuffie had gotten him as a joke, saying that the Silver Elite fanclub was still a thing as well as Red Leather.  Maybe he should use those two fanclubs as a way to monitor what Sephiroth and Genesis were doing.

                He stopped himself from thinking more useless thoughts as he hid behind what seemed to be the ruins of a small building, maybe a storage shed made of concrete.  Couldn’t have been used as anything other than storage, it was way too small for anything else.  Peering over the wrecked wall, he took in the seemingly calm area surrounding the main portion of the exam fields.  This one held within it a gigantic building, possibly an old hospital or office building that was allowed to fall into disrepair or was attacked a few times too many during the exams held here.  Broken glass just barely hanging onto the window sills, dangerously close to falling and impaling an unsuspecting passerby.  A wall had been blown wide open, allowing Cloud to see inside the nearly empty building and watch as an examinee was shot with a paintball gun, automatically being disqualified, before a black shadow ran across and there was the faint sound of metal hitting metal.  A cloud of dust, probably from a collapsed ceiling, blew over to where Cloud could see through the hole.

                Thankful he had the foresight to dirty his bright blond hair before he built the platform, he didn’t bother ducking when an examinee looked out of the hole in curiosity and wariness before running across, keeping low to the ground.  When he heard a slight noise behind him, he pretended to be ignorant, getting ready to bolt across the field and climb the building the way he had already decided upon.  There were enough metal poles hanging out that looked like branches, he was nearly certain that it would feel like he was traveling through the trees.  Once there was another noise, as if someone was getting prepared to shoot but didn’t have much experience with guns, Cloud threw a fireball behind him before sprinting to the first spot he had decided on.  He heard the fire connect and someone cussing up a storm about getting burnt on the leg before he jumped and started using momentum to run up across the metal poles before he had to jump and grab hold of one.  Paint balls hit behind him and one hit the wall before him when he paused to gain more momentum by swinging.  He didn’t bother to look to see who was shooting at him, simply commanding his ice materia piece to freeze the air enough to bring up a frost on the grass.  There were exclamations of cold around him, even inside the building, but when he didn’t hear one too close by inside, he slipped through the window next to him and landed on the short ledge there and calling back the cold that he had summoned a mere second ago, returning the normal heat of summer.

                He glanced from side to side, not seeing anyone or hearing the slightest noise from this floor, before there was the sound of something slicing through the air.  Barely managing to dodge the blunt sword before it embedded itself within his shoulder, Cloud looked up under the hood to see calm glowing black eyes staring back at him, the sword easily hefted out of the stone it had found itself within.  Cloud could feel a portion of himself telling him to submit and smile at the man.  While Cloud refused to submit, he supposed he could allow a slight smile before sending a lightning bolt at the man and running away in his surprise.

                “Yoohoo~ Let me return the favor, yeah?”  A gigantic fireball made itself known as it headed towards Cloud, Cloud just barely dodging the attack by pulling back and hiding behind a pillar.  With the sword wielding man on his left, and the fire spitter on his right and behind him, Cloud couldn’t see a way out but a head on conflict.  Thankfully, it appeared they were either restricting themselves from using their enhancements or were being restricted by an outside force so they weren’t overbearingly strong.  “There is no hate, only joy, for you are beloved by the Goddess.”  The voice was certainly steadily getting closer and now Cloud knew who one of his attackers was.  With how his mind and body reacted earlier, he could guess at the other one.

                “Y’know, I thought the point of the disguise was so you weren’t found out on who you were, General Hewley, General Rhapsodos.”  Yes, he spoke quietly, but he very vividly remembered how he could hear when he was as Mako pumped as these two are.

                “Well, it certainly makes it more interesting when your prey knows who you are, isn’t that right Angeal?”

                “I’m not quite sure what you mean, Genesis, but it _is_ more honorable when your opponent knows your name.  As such, what is your name?”  They both seemed to pause to await his answer, Genesis much more impatient than Angeal.

                “Strife,” he said, before calling upon both the fire and ice materia on his bracelet to create a quick mist which he used to hide as he ran across and ignored their surprise.  As he jumped across the opening, he sent a bolt of lightning down the ‘hallway’ between the pillars straight at Genesis’ face, which revealed that they were simply holding back rather than being limited when Genesis quickly held up his hand and redirected the bolt.  He’d have to get the First Class to teach him how to do that some time.  Now, though, was not the time to be thinking about the future when he needed to focus on dodging the cool-headed SOLDIER’s blade.  Thankfully, Zack’s memories that were still imprinted upon his brain made it easier to keep up – just barely though.  It didn’t help when Genesis joined the fight, forcing him to dodge both the blade and the fire at the same time.  He was ready to kiss himself for thinking of situations such as this, otherwise this would have been impossible for himself and he more than likely would already be dead due to the two no longer actually doing much to notice where they were aiming.  They were also speeding up, whether on purpose or unconsciously Cloud didn’t know, but he was certainly thankful when the ground beneath him disappeared and he went through the floor, bolting to the window and climbing back down (or jumping back down, in all honesty), nicking another examinee of a loaf of bread he was about to eat, before racing back to the forest, dodging the paintballs and a single ball of fire that managed to make its way down to him.  He hid behind a tree, glancing back to see that the two Generals were already on their way down on the inside, judging by how it appeared that fireballs were knocking out every examinee on each floor, and that the floor that he had been on was absolutely destroyed and burnt like cookies that were forgotten about.

                Climbing up into a sturdy tree that was covered in green leaves, Cloud allowed himself a chance to calm his heart rate and rest.  After a five minute break and no one interrupting him even as they ran around below him, he took care to place himself on the other side of the trunk, ready to begin jumping through the trees again, when he heard someone softly whisper “Boo” right next to his ear, causing him to automatically grab the redhead next to him and pin him to the trunk of the tree.  “Whoa whoa whoa, calm down kitten, yo.  Life is okay, a’ight?”

                “What?”  Cloud was confused by the nickname more than anything else.  The redhead looked fairly familiar though, Cloud recognizing him from before when everyone was told the exam started.  The redhead had his gun strapped against his back, probably trying to appear as harmless as possible, and his arms held up in an ‘I surrender’ sort of way.

                “The name’s Reno, yo.  I’m assumin’ ya have a name, ‘else I’ll just call ya my kitten.”  Reno grinned, probably entertained by his own speech.  Knowing how the boy grows up to be, Cloud wouldn’t doubt it one bit.

                “Strife.”  Cloud said shortly before dropping to the ground with the decision that the surrounding area was safe.

                “Awe, c’mon kitten, that sounds more like ya las’ name than it does a firs’ name.”  Reno kept pace with the shorter blond.

                “It is but I’m sure you’ll find out in time.  Besides, I believe it to be more fitting.”  Cloud was simply waiting for the hatred to kick in.  Surely it would, Reno was never very close to him in the past-future.  Cloud wasn’t sure but he believed that the only people who wouldn’t hate him were those he was close with and felt a connection with in the past-future, which limited the list by a lot.  Aerith, Zack, Cid, Vincent, and Denzel, pretty much.

                “So, let’s get down to the reason I’m botherin’ ya, kay?  Ya see kitten, I saw ya earlier when General Gay-as-fuck was givin’ his speech, righ’?  An’ after I saw ya, some woman’s voice was tellin’ me that I shouldn’ be nice to ya and I should hate’cha and all that jazz, which didn’ make no sense to me, yo.  So I’ve been followin’ ya since ya came out of the marsh, no way I’d be goin’ in there yo, an’ I decided your a pretty chill dude so wanna make a deal?”  Cloud had to process what was just said before he replied in a slow manner.

                “You want to form an alliance because you’ve been stalking me ever since you heard a voice say I’m bad news?”  Cloud glanced over at Reno with a raised eyebrow.

                Reno grinned “Not jus’ any voice, yo.  A _woman’s_ voice.  She sounded pret-ty hot though.”

                “Right…”  Cloud drew out the word into the silence.  In fact, it was a little too silent.  “Well, sure, if you really want to.  I’d suggest dodging to the right though and using that tree as a barrier now.”

                Right after saying that, he gave Reno a shove before dodging to the left himself and taking off running after he confirmed the fire spell had missed.  Apparently he had captured the attention of the Red Angel or something because Genesis was chasing him down like Genesis was a hound and he was a rabbit.  It was borderline ridiculous, honestly.  “The wandering soul knows no rest.”

                “Yeah well, would you give this chase a rest?!  It’s getting a little irritating!”  To accent his last word that was very harshly whispered, he sent flying a rain of icicles with his ice Materia.

                “No way, this is far too interesting to leave you alone!”  Genesis pulled out a common longsword, chasing after him with almost renewed purpose.  Honestly, Cloud wanted to avoid a confrontation in case he ended up triggering the degradation sooner than it was supposed to start.  He didn’t want Genesis out of the picture too soon.  Actually, he didn’t want Genesis out of the picture at all, because he wanted to figure a way to fix the degradation before Genesis went AWOL and started destroying everything to find the cure.

                “No way kitten, your already on the Gen’ral’s bad side?”  Reno whistled as he caught up with Cloud easily.

                “’parently, as I can’t get him off my ass.”  Cloud’s mind worked strategically, seeing the land before him as a sort of grid(?) before setting together Materia combinations to put in traps that would catch the redhead and not touch him at all.  Setting the traps was easy (for him, at least), making them go off on time was fairly difficult.  Making a sharp turn towards the marsh using his momentum and the help of a tree to turn, he allowed the nearly harmless traps to go off, meaning only to disorientate the elder red.  Just as he was about to make it to the forest’s edge, Reno pulled him to the left.  Just barely dodging a slice of a longsword.

                “You’re not taking me seriously, are you?”  Genesis seemed irritated at that, judging on his body language and voice.

                “Mostly just tryin’ not to hurt you but sure.  If that’s what you wanna call it.”  Cloud shrugged, shifting backwards as he kept up his defensive stance.  He felt both of the red haired men’s disbelieving stares before Genesis started chuckling.

                 “’Trying not to hurt’ me?  Please kid, you’ve gotta realize our skill difference here.”  Genesis took a ready stance, looking almost ready to jump at him at a moment’s notice.

                “Well, considering your physical state and wellbeing at the current moment, me hurting you wouldn’t be as much a mosquito bite as it would be a venomous snake.” With that, using an impromptu geyser as cover, Cloud ran across the field and into a marsh tree, feeling more than seeing or hearing Reno’s constant presence behind him.  When he heard Genesis cussing up a storm, he was rather relieved and let his guard down slightly.

                There was still the possibility of that meditating proctor being in the clearing where his platform was after all.

                Just as he thought that, while carefully navigating his way around the tree trunk in a way that was easy to follow for Reno, he heard a loud buzzer go off, nearly taking his eardrums out.  With how much ringing there was going on after the buzzer stopped sounding off near him, he kind of questioned whether they were still usable after this.  He looked over to Reno, who was wobbling on the branch with a stunned expression, and, instead of speaking for he knew it would be useless, fingerspelled out ‘O-K’ and raised his eyebrows as he had been taught during that time his mom thought he was simply mute rather than just refusing to be a child.  Reno looked at him uncomprehendingly, making Cloud wish for the past-future Reno who could speak six different languages and sign three (which he only knew because Reno bragged about it then taught a little Wutaian sign to Cloud – mostly insults), so Cloud rolled his eyes and decided that he was fine, waving off the questioning expression and, no doubt, shouted questions directed at him.  Cloud dropped to the ground, where there was a perfectly solid grass patch, then looked around for answers.  The tree trunks seemed fairly insistent that they go back to the field that they had just sprinted through, if the projected arrows on every tree pointing back to the field was any indicator.

                He felt the impact as Reno followed his lead to the ground before he started swiftly going to the marsh edge, hovering behind a tree as he watched the examinees file in – some splattered with paint, some with burns, at least fifteen with a cast or splint, one that he could see that had crutches, and only a few with nothing that showed they hadn’t been hit – and crowd around the stage.  Cloud felt a presence not too far behind him other than Reno, causing him to jump and put himself in a defensive position as the meditating proctor walked past without so much as a glance towards Cloud.  After breaking past the tree-line, the man started stripping himself of the clothing that hid his distinctive features, allowing his hair out of the hoodie.  Which stated to Cloud that the exam was over.  Had he made it through the exam?  Had he really?  Was this the end of his childhood dream?  Had he finally achieved the goal of a life a long time ago?  It felt a little surreal.

                He made his way towards the back of the group, warily keeping an eye on every movement that he could see.  With a hundred plus examinees, plus the twenty or so proctors, it was slightly difficult.  Definitely not what he was used to doing, that’s for certain.  When someone who was marked with a medic hat came to check on him, he started speaking normally with Cloud causing him to get slightly confused.  He quickly signed that he couldn’t hear at the moment and was a poor lip reader, causing him to get an appraising stare from the male nurse before he shouted for something.  It almost looked like he said ‘Elena’ but Cloud could be wrong, he had been before.

                Another young nurse, this one female, showed up and listened attentively as the male nurse said something to her before she nodded, turning to Cloud with a questioning expression, eyebrows up and mouth slightly open.  “YOU REPEAT YOU.” she signed, before patiently awaiting his response.

                Cloud nodded, also signing ‘yes’ before he went through the signs he had done with the male nurse before, as she slowly spoke to said nurse.  The male nurse rolled his eyes before saying something.  The nurse nodded before she patiently watched the male nurse turn to someone else to do normal procedure.  “YOU BESIDE NOISE QUESTION.”  Same expression as before, this time with a little bit of a smile.

                Nodding, Cloud continued the conversation as he waited for his hearing to come back, even as she asked normal ‘check up’ questions, like ‘how are you feeling’ and ‘can you bend and straighten your arms and let me check for any injury’ and questions like that.  Her attention was taken away from him and towards the stage, before she started signing again.  “S-E-P-H-I-R-O-T-H SPEAK TWO THINGS FIRST NEW STUDENT NAME SECOND FAIL STUDENT NAME.”  Then she pointed at the stage, directing his attention up to the stage where the silver haired male was standing.  He seemed to be going through another one of the boringly long speeches.  Cloud looked up there until he felt a tapping on his arm, bringing his attention back to the nurse.  Her eyebrows down and her tongue pushed forward and against her teeth, as shown through the little bit of her mouth that opened, she signed out “YOUR NAME WHAT.”

                “C-L-O-U-D S-T-R-I-F-E.”  Cloud smiled at the nurse as she turned her head back towards the stage with a determined expression.  Cloud also turned his attention back to Sephiroth but every once in a while he would look back at the nurse as her expression was slowly losing hope and belief in her, apparently, new found friend.  Cloud knew to be patient, after all his name would be near the bottom of the list if in alphabetical order, but he was slightly curious on when Reno was recruited for the Turks.  He hadn’t yet seen a Turk anywhere in the vicinity and he’d honestly rather keep it that way.  They always seemed to know more than they 'ought to.

                Suddenly her expression brightened before she schooled it into something pleasantly disappointed, causing Cloud to turn his attention to the front if only to humor her.  She tapped on his arm almost hesitantly and he turned to her with an open expression in curiosity.  “YOU PASS DID NOT.”

                Simply put, her delivery was horrible.  Her expression had not kept the mold she had placed upon it, she was shaking and nervous, and she had a gigantic smile on her face.  “YOU LIE BAD.”

                “O-K.  NOW YOU S-O-L-D-I-E-R.”  She didn’t seem upset that her lie hadn’t worked, in fact she seemed even more excited.

                “THANK-YOU.”  Cloud signed before he joined Reno in the accepted mob.  He looked back in time to see her sign ‘later’ before attending to her own patients, making him wonder if she worked with SOLDIER recruits.  Cloud ignored the rising anger around him, simply focusing on Sephiroth and seeing if he could read Sephiroth’s lips as he went through the, apparently, mental list he had obtained over the short period of time.  Speaking of gaining something over a short period of time, Cloud wondered when the Turks grabbed their chosen recruits.  Reno was still in the SOLDIER recruits, so either he changed the story a little too much or they hadn’t chosen their recruits yet.

                All of a sudden, he felt multiple pairs of eyes placed on him, mostly disbelieving or curious.  Cloud looked around to see the only one not looking at him was Reno, who seemed as confused as Cloud felt.  Cloud looked back up at Sephiroth to see he was staring intently at him, then behind him to see Angeal shaking his head in exasperation and Genesis fuming with twigs sticking out of random places on his body, leaves falling from Genesis’ soaking body as he stomped his way over to Cloud.  Cloud felt almost certain that the redhead was grumbling threats and insults his whole way over to Cloud and Cloud felt his lips quirk in amusement when all he could reply back with was sign language.  “SORRY NOW HEAR NOT.”

                It only seemed to irritate the redhead even more.


	7. As If He Didn't Have Enough Bad Luck...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry.

                Cloud watched apathetically as the usually red bearing general vented angrily at him, finding a small source of amusement as he watched the different motions that Genesis made which made no sense to Cloud since he didn’t have any context to put them in.  After all, how would you get context when you can’t hear what’s being said?  He supposed that maybe he was expected to be concerned over the fact that he couldn’t hear but he honestly just didn’t really care.  After all, it was a temporary thing and it wasn’t like he couldn’t protect himself without his hearing.  All five senses were more of a convenience than they were a necessary thing.  Having at least three would be fine for him, honestly.  Having his sight, his touch, and his taste would be preferred over his hearing and his sense of smell.  After all, he rather liked being able to see things coming at him, feel when someone was touching him, and taste whether something was poisonous to his body or not.  He didn’t really need to hear, there were ways to communicate otherwise – it was simply that people that _could_ hear were able to rely on that convenience and didn’t see much of a need to learn to communicate when they couldn’t.  He _really_ didn’t need to smell – especially those foul smells of the world, they were quite unnecessary.

                Jolting out of his thoughts, he barely held himself from defending himself from Genesis grabbing the collar of his shirt.  All amusement he may have been feeling at some point completely faded away as his eyelids lowered, staring straight into Genesis’ own fiery eyes as he allowed himself to hang from his collar, his toes barely touching the dirt still.  Tightening his jaw while Genesis looked as if he believed that he were holding the upper hand, he placed his hand on Genesis’ which still held a tight grip on his shirt collar.  Genesis’ eyebrow twitched in irritation as he halted his possibly-cocky speech, looking at the newly placed hand.  Man, how easy it would be to just zap this man.

                Dropping to the ground nearly right after thinking that, Cloud blinked in surprise as Genesis stared at his twitching hand before turning a glare on Cloud as he shook the twitching hand out.  Cloud couldn’t read lips at all so Genesis seemed to be getting increasingly irritated as Cloud didn’t answer.  Finally, Cloud was tired of all of the silent drama, saying as loudly as he could force himself so that the idiot who kept babbling would be able to hear him over his own voice.  He sincerely hoped that the words that came out truly sounded like ‘I can’t hear you’ and not some garbled mess.  Judging by how the man stopped his tirade and looked at him in a different kind of irritated way, it came out how he wanted it to.

                Genesis turned away from Cloud, towards the stage where Sephiroth and Angeal stood.  He didn’t walk away though so Cloud could only assume the man was saying something, especially as Sephiroth raised an eyebrow before saying something and Angeal looked nearly shocked dead.  Angeal began saying something loudly when he must’ve been cut off mid-sentence, looking as if he were going to have a heart-attack right there on the stage.  He looked extremely worried, his gaze switching from Genesis who still appeared to be talking and Cloud himself (who was standing there in absolute confusion on how the currently proceeding events were going).  He felt a hesitant hand tap on his upper arm, looking over to see Elena again.

                “G-E-N-E-S-I-S WANT TEACH.”  Okay, how did that affect him any?

                “O-K QUESTION.”  He knew that it probably wasn’t the proper way of signing but… well, it got his point across better than just giving her a ‘what the fuck does that mean’ look.

                “WANT TEACH YOU.”  Elena met his eyes without any hesitance, causing him to let out a little ‘oh’ – or, he supposes he did, it felt like it but he wasn’t quite certain.  Looking back to the red general, he saw an impatient stare glaring right back at him.  Looking past the leather-clad general showed that both Angeal and Sephiroth were staring at him expectantly as well – Angeal more worried while Sephiroth was more apathetic in his expectations.

                “WHO.”  Disbelief was a major emotion in his mind at the moment.  He really couldn’t believe any possibility that someone who fought him so intensely during an _examination of his more likely to be shit abilities_ would want to teach him.  Plus, it almost seemed like Genesis hated him.

                “YOU.”  Elena’s certainty was a little disconcerting.  It made him… he didn’t even know what he was feeling at the moment.  “YOUR ANSWER WHAT.”  Letting out a heavy breath, Cloud looked around the faces looking at him.  Sephiroth patient, Angeal looked like he was about to see a fight and intervene in it, Genesis wasn’t looking at him, some of the other SOLDIERs looked a little offended, there were many looks of shocked anger and hatred from many of the other examinees, that one brown haired guy from before seemed to be too excited about something else to really care about what was going on, and Reno looked extremely confused.  It didn’t seem as if either way that he said it would change how everyone was viewing him.

                The brunette nurse next to the boy looked over in the three Generals’ direction after the blond went through quite a few hand movements.  Sephiroth wasn’t quite certain on much that was said but he caught that the boy wasn’t believing whatever the woman was saying before saying something about ‘trust’.  He needed to study his sign language a bit more intensely.

                “Well?  His answer?”  Angeal asked when there was a moment of silence from the two without any hand gestures.  The angered muttering from the crowd seemed to be getting to him.

                The woman hesitated a moment longer, glancing at the boy uncertainly.  “He says… that he doesn’t _trust_ General Genesis so he would prefer that someone were around who could… match?  The General’s strength, for protection purposes.”  She paused another moment, looking confused back at the blond.  “He also… requested that he were provided with an… ice cube?  Or water to create it with?”  Now even Genesis looked over confused at the blond who was patiently waiting.  Sephiroth was curious enough that he tossed over his own water bottle for the blond to catch, which the boy did flawlessly.  He pulled the water out of the bottle, his eyebrow twitching when the water froze on the way out of the bottle in a solid swirl, staying attached to the mouth piece.  Rolling his eyes, he broke off a piece before walking over to an equally deaf red head.  Tilting the redhead’s head to the side with a loud exclamation of surprise, he put the thin piece of ice into the ear facing his way and Sephiroth could see the telltale sign of a Heal Level 2 passing through the ice all while the redhead loudly complained.  Breaking off another piece, he did the same thing to the other side, this time the redhead was oddly silent.

                “Dude, how’d ya do that?”  The redhead seemed amazed and spoke quieter than before.

                “Learn sign language Reno.”  This was all the redhead received in reply, the blond’s crystal voice ringing through Sephiroth’s ears once more.  The blond gave the redhead the frozen water bottle and the water splashed back into the bottle right away.  “Could you give that to the Gen’ral?”  Sephiroth watched as the boy looked confused before handing it over to Genesis.  Apparently he didn’t see Sephiroth toss it that way.  Blondie face-palmed as Genesis just stared deadpanned at the other redhead.

                “Wrong one Cadet.”  Pointing over at Sephiroth, Reno smiled awkwardly.

                “I knew that, yo.”  The red-haired Cadet awkwardly switched targets from Genesis to the other leather wearing general.  Tossing it up onto the stage, the silver-haired general caught it with ease.  Looking at the bottle blankly before looking back at the blond that had neglected to heal himself.  He appeared to be thinking.

                “Well, Gen’ral, I would love to take ya up on yer offer for teachin’ but I’m more interested in Gen’ral Angeal’s style than yours.”  Pointing up at the buster sword that had been placed comfortably onto Angeal’s back, the kid sounded like he was straining his voice to make sure he was heard.  Two out of three of the Generals’ eyebrows went up, their minds instantly going back to the fight that they had just experienced not too long ago.  Seeing those expressions, Cloud began to nervously fidget.  He knew he had not trained his body for a giant sword the way that he probably should have.  He was more of a ‘stabby stab stab with a dagger in the night’ sort of body type in this timeline, though he wouldn’t have been able to lift the buster sword to begin with had he not been mako poisoned by the good old professor – he wouldn’t allow _that_ to happen again, honestly.  He rather liked having a memory of his mother, rather than thinking he was Zack.  Then again, he had no certainty that he was saying what he thought he was saying, for all he knew it was a garbled mess.  Even worse, he could be speaking with his bumpkin accent.

                “With your natural affinity for magic, you could destroy entire armies with magic alone.”  Sephiroth pointed out, finding this was half a waste of time and half a nice chance to listen to a pretty voice.  Plus, it was curious how the blond didn’t bother healing his own hearing even though he had healed his friend’s, instead looking between the Generals and a nurse for communication.

                After a short pause as this was relayed back to the blond, he almost seemed to… pout?  Could that even be called a pout?  Before Sephiroth could decide, Angeal decided to intervene.  “Surely we could find a better time and place to discuss this, for now everyone should head back to their assigned rooms and either pack up to go home, to go to the infantry base in Midgar city, or to go to the SOLDIER base in Midgar tomorrow morning.  At 0700 tomorrow, the train will be departing and anyone late will either need to make their own way to the city or go home.  All but Strife are dismissed.”  Grumbles of irritation towards the blond could be heard as many angry and jealous SOLDIER or infantry cadets to be, SOLDIER Third Class, and rejects left to go about their business.

                “I really don’t see why you feel the need to – “ Genesis complained before being cut off by Sephiroth striding past him.

                “Heal yourself, I do not enjoy unintended company and my sign is shaky at best.”  Sephiroth ordered, handing over the water bottle that he had given to the blond before as wary blue eyes seemed to glare up at him.


	8. Misguided Conversations

                Sephiroth was accustomed to three things – people who were fans of his entire existence and people who were wary of his entire existence.  Then, the third thing, Genesis.  Genesis had his own category as no one else was as enjoyable to spar, as amusing to anger and annoy, or as predictable as Genesis.  No one else had yet to believe they were Sephiroth’s rival either, not even one of his enemies.

                Sephiroth’s fans were the maniacs that would go so far as to break into his fake apartment to steal his shampoo – Angeal had been the one to think up a fake apartment when Sephiroth was getting homicidally annoyed with waking up to people in his bedroom.  The Silver Elite were the worst of the bunch, stalking him around Shinra’s main building and putting cadets that were absolutely terrible at combat into the ranks.  Even the infantry wasn’t safe from the raving madmen and women.  Oh yes, there were more men in the Silver Elite than there were women, quite the contrast to Red Leather and Keepers of Honor.  Not that Sephiroth minded but it was more difficult to figure out whether they were the weird ones who would figure out the ingredients of his toothpaste just by being near him or if they were the ones who were just thinking that they were incredibly lucky to be within twenty feet of The General.

                The people who were wary was a rather short list – starting at the very top with President Shinra.  Actually, a majority of the people in a higher position within Shinra were wary of Sephiroth except Hojo, who Sephiroth thought it was more fitting to put him in the same list as the creepy people from Silver Elite.  They certainly acted alike.

                Sephiroth had only three people that he couldn’t quite place into a list besides Genesis but he didn’t believe that he was accustomed enough to any of the three to do so – those three being Tseng, Angeal, and Zack.  Even Sephiroth’s secretary fell into one of the categories – obviously into the fan category – so it was weird that he couldn’t place even Angeal into a category.  Angeal, while wary of the damage that Sephiroth _could_ cause, was still one of Sephiroth’s closest acquaintances, someone he went to when he required advice or aid and someone he could count on to have his back should he need it in battle.  Zack was an anomaly in and of itself.  He seemed absolutely determined to find ways to irritate and command attention from Sephiroth, alike to Genesis, but seemed genuinely upset and apologetic once he had irritated or angered the silver haired general, unlike Genesis.  Then there was Tseng, whom Sephiroth knew had information on him that would make every fangirl and boy green with envy (Sephiroth even knew that the man used it to get his way sometimes) and wasn’t wary of him whatsoever.  In fact, it seemed the Turk was more respectful of him than anything else but not in that weird fan way that creeped Sephiroth out more than anything.

                But this blond now-a-cadet… Sephiroth didn’t have a category for him either.  He looked almost like the many war prisoners they had taken in the Wutai war, except better fed and better kept.  He didn’t see ribs sticking out – a sign he had always attributed to the prisoners Shinra took, since none of his enemies suffered the same condition before he saw them in the prison part of camp – and there wasn’t a bruise or other injury anywhere on the kid – though both of these might be because he was covered head to toe in black already.  The kid had the same look in his eyes, though.  One of anger, wariness, and sadness all put together.  As if he had some sort of revenge scheme planned out for Sephiroth, even if Sephiroth had never once been to the Nibelheim mountains – where he had seen on the kid’s file that he came from, now that he thought of it, though the file didn’t give the kid much justice – he was absolutely certain of that.  Then there was that tiny gleam of hope, one that he had seen die out of many prisoner’s eyes.  He rather hoped the blond didn’t lose that small amount of hope.  It would sure be a pity if such a great fighter, according to Angeal and Genesis’ reactions to the boy, were to give up.

                Though not quite on the same track as Sephiroth, Angeal had made his own observations of the blond – mostly thinking that the boy seemed a lot like Zack before Angeal took him in for training.  Before Angeal had begun to train the puppy, Zack was quiet, antisocial, withdrawn – whatever word you wanted to use for it.  He avoided others like it would physically hurt him to even just say ‘hello’ to another person.  As he came to find out later, it was not unlikely for that to happen even if it weren’t because he said ‘hello’ but more the fact that the cadet was being bullied.  But the quiet black-haired kid was insanely persistent when it came to what he wanted and, apparently, he had wanted Angeal to help him better his sword abilities.  Honestly, Angeal hadn’t needed to improve much, just minor and minute details.  What he really focused on was getting the kid to open up, become more confident, and maybe smile a bit.  Now they had the puppy as they knew him today but Angeal hadn’t introduced the kid to the other two until after he was more self-confident – that way, meeting Genesis wouldn’t destroy any of the progress he had made with the kid because, let’s face it, Gen was a bit of a jerk.

                The kid had one thing that Zack had lacked though – self-confidence.  At least, confidence in his own skills and abilities.  He seemed entirely out of place in a crowd, even without everyone looking like they wanted to take his head off his shoulders.  Strife – Angeal couldn’t help but notice that it wasn’t a particularly nice name to walk around with, though there was a possibility that the cadet-to-be was giving a pseudo-name rather than a real one even if it wasn’t very smart to do so – knew for a fact that the Materia would do what he wanted.  He also seemed to know for a fact that he could get through uneven or strange terrain.  After he had checked the blond over for any possible injuries, he had begun the fight and there was only one point that Angeal had seen Strife falter and it was only for a mere second before the blond-muddied-brown had slipped through a hole in the ground.  Though, Angeal had to admit, both he and Gen had been pushing him to see how much longer he could go – even if it were by accident, there had been a slight thrill that went through Angeal when he realized what the kid was doing _without_ enhancements.  How much better would he be _with_ mako running through his veins?  Angeal knew the kid probably would never have the agility that Sephiroth had but the things the blond could do!

                He would be able to take down behemoths without a problem in the world, saving so many people from trampled homes and families.  He could protect people from other people, from terrorists, such as AVALANCHE and Hojo’s failed experiments.  Angeal could see so much potential that was going to be wasted if the kid wasn’t put into SOLDIER, ASAP.  Not that Angeal believed SOLDIER to be a better program than any other, since every company is sure to have corruption and greed, but the Mako enhancements that come with being SOLDIER were sure to give the kid the power and abilities to make _some_ difference in the world.  Now, the only things that Angeal had to complain about was the look he kept giving Sephiroth – as if he had pulled a Genesis and set fire to something important to the kid or had kicked the kid’s puppy or something along those lines – and the anti-social glare the kid had seemingly set into his face.

                Two things that Angeal was almost determined to change.

                Of course, while both Sephiroth and Angeal had made their mental analysis of the boy following the three generals to their shared quarters, Genesis was making his own analysis – sort of.

                _The brat thinks he can hurt **me**?  As if!  I want a rematch – but it’s against the rules to fight a cadet or cadet-to-be outside of exams.  So I have to get the kid under my jurisdiction – he’s ok with Materia so it won’t be much of a problem and it wouldn’t raise any questions – then I can beat him up and show him that it won’t hurt me at all!  Stupid brat…_   Despite his thoughts, Genesis was probably the most impressed of the three – not that he would admit that.  After all, he had fought the kid longer than Angeal and Sephiroth had never engaged the blond.

                When he first saw the blond-muddied-brown child cowering behind the ruins of a stone storage shed – already, he had forgotten the conversation he had had with Angeal and Sephiroth about the weird anti-social people-angering blond, and still didn’t remember such a short and unimportant dialogue – he had figured the kid would be an easy target.  Get him out of the fight fast, get rid of the weaklings, that type of logic, yeah?  So he had cocked the stupid modified pistol the way he remembered being taught – he was never going to use that fucked up thing ever again – and aimed for a non-vital spot on the kid’s arm.  Then, all of a sudden, he had a large fireball being shot at his face!  That normally would only be a short irritance, if it weren’t cast so close and so big.  So now he had a few burnt ends in his hair that he was going to need to pay someone to cut out and he knew for a _fact_ that his eyebrows were now lopsided, not to mention that he now had a small burn on his leg.  Next thing he knew (aka, once he was done cussing up a storm), with the fireball dispersed and the kid no longer in front of him, it was suddenly freezing cold around him.  The magic that caused it was easily locatable at the near top of the building, where he saw the fire-user ducking into the building with a line of paintballs showing where he had been before.

                Barely stopping to admire the balance and agile ability that the kid had, he had run up flights of stairs.  If even _Nall_ had missed the kid when he had a _gun_ , then he really wanted to be a part of whatever was going to happen upstairs.  Nall was the only First that had abilities with a gun rivalling even Turks, though his accuracy lessened the further away the target was (he was still a _damn_ good sniper).  But this time, the blond wasn’t so far away that the accuracy would be challenged too much, probably only able to dodge by instinct or speed.

                He was almost _glad_ that he had joined the fight when he saw Angeal and the kid – Strife, he said his name was, which was strangely not very accurate as far as Gen could tell – in a near stand-off that was cut by a lightning bolt from the blond.  It had been a slight surprise that, after throwing a larger fireball than the kid had thrown towards him at the boy, the blond was able to recognise who both Angeal and Genesis were.  As far as he knew, Angeal hadn’t even spoken yet!  At that point, he was fairly certain the boy was a fan – probably part of Keepers of Honor, unfortunately, with how easily he was keeping up with Angeal.  Then the boy began using more and more Materia, there was no way a fanboy would be able to use offensive Materia when fighting someone they idolize.

                Genesis knew for certain that the boy was purposefully using fire and ice to create mist then lightning to attempt to electrocute Gen – pausing when Genesis directed the lightning to the side, making him fruff up in pride even though he would deny that a cadet-to-be would cause such a reaction – but it didn’t seem as if the boy even noticed the jolts that ran through the ground.  Genesis didn’t even know concrete could conduct electricity!  It wasn’t enough to hurt but it was enough to cause discomfort, which may or may not have encouraged them to speed up on the kid.  Of course, Genesis saw that split second of panic that went through the examinee’s crystal blue eyes, more stunning than any ocean Gen had ever seen so to compare the two would be inaccurate and would not do justice to the beauty – Genesis halted that thought for the second time of the day.  It was bad enough that he was charmed by the boy’s eyes once already, whilst in the middle of battle for goddess’ sake, but to be infatuated with even the memory of the kid’s eyes?  He wasn’t even legal yet!  He had to be about 12 years of age, Genesis couldn’t believe that he was even _thinking_ about the boy in such a way.  If the blond was truly 12, then Genesis needed to make sure that he kept his thoughts in check for 4 more years – the wait would be… interesting to say the least.

                Back to memories that did not have anything to do with the beauty of the blond’s eyes, Genesis was more surprised than Angeal and Strife when the kid fell through the floor.  Barely catching vision of the boy scrambling towards a window-like opening, Genesis had cursed as he ran for the same wall and found his own window; just barely able to cast a fireball after the boy, which he seemed to easily dodge as it burnt the ground.  Of course, Genesis was irritated beyond belief.  He had been distracted so his pretty prey had escaped.  So, of course, Gen took his anger out on other examinees on his way down the building – even the examinees that would have previously been ignored had he not been on a warpath.  As he exited the now nearly cleared out building, he had seen a small movement in the tree line.  Assuming it was an examinee, he sent a fireball straight at it.  Grinning when he noticed it was his previous prey, he had advanced quickly as the blond-muddied-brown ran away with a redhead keeping up.

                Then again, he was probably the reason why the exam had ended so quickly, when it usually lasted _at least_ three days.  It wasn’t _his_ fault, exactly, but he more than likely contributed to it the most.  Nall was certainly going crazy from his favourite spot, in a corner of a building that had already fallen to ruins and had a nice thick bush growing in it, and Roe, an excellent swordswoman and one of the only two female Firsts, was having a nice 10-on-1 battle that she was more than likely going to talk about for _days_ afterwards.  Gen knew that Nall and Roe would pick out their favourites and keep them in the battle if they couldn’t do it themselves, all while picking out the weak links and sending them packing – that was why Genesis liked the twins the most out of any of the other Firsts, when they decided to do something they stuck it through to the end and did it the absolute best they could.  Gen also figured that Flint was having fun with using the paintball bullets as ammo for his slingshot that he always snuck onto the field so he could avoid using a gun or sword.  It always amused Genesis to listen to Flint’s stories and how he managed to get into SOLDIER without once using a gun was always interesting – after all, he was just barely average with both the sword and Materia so it was a wonder the man got in at all.

                “So, now that we’re here, why do you even want to be my teacher?”  Strife’s voice brought Genesis out of his mental musings and memories, causing him to look at the boy – really, just when he had finally calmed down from his irritation, the kid just had to talk again.  As _if_ the boy could actually harm even the thinnest hair on Genesis’ body, Strife had to be absolutely delusional.  Even _Seph_ couldn’t keep Gen down for long.

                Instead of voicing his irritation, Genesis smirked.  “Really, you’re part of SOLDIER now, don’t you know how to address your superiors?”

                The boy’s eyes seemed to almost narrow before he stopped them and, in the same tone of voice as before with very little if any emotion, asked again.  “General Rhapsodos, excuse me for asking, but is there a reason that a great Materia user such as yourself would want to teach the lowly me, sir?”

                Sephiroth interrupted before Genesis could say anything.  “Sarcasm, while amusing in unprofessional circumstances, is not welcome in situations such as these, cadet.”  Gesturing towards a seat across from a wide couch, Sephiroth continued without a change in tone or expression.  “Have a seat.”

                Strife glanced at the seat before looking back at Sephiroth.  “I’d really rather not sit, sir.  My intentions, General Sephiroth, were not to be sarcastic but to satisfy my curiosity.  General Rhapsodos desired a different approach in my question so I attempted to rectify my sentence in the way that he asked me to.  If that was not to his liking, I can try again?”

                Cloud was freaking out.  There was no way around it, he was behind closed doors with three people that went insane in his past-future and _he had only truly fought one of them before_.  He knew Sephiroth was a challenge to begin with, but that was when Cloud had Mako pouring out of his body – who knew how much more difficult the man would be to defeat now?!  Oh, Cloud knew, Cloud knew very well that Sephiroth could kill him before he even blinked as he was now.  Not to mention the other two!  Sure, he had a taste of a fight with Angeal and Genesis but that was with them holding back, even by the end.  He wouldn’t have been able to continue that dodging game for much longer and he had been heavily pulling on Zack’s left-over memories from all the times Zack had sparred with either one of the Generals, the times that Angeal had taught Zack, the times that Genesis and Zack would get into an argument and solve it with a fast battle through the… VR room (Cloud wasn’t quite sure but it seemed as if they were in a different place every time and every single place was void of people), and even the times that Zack fought with the intention to protect or to defend.  The Generals were _Generals_ for a reason, after all.

                He couldn’t take them on all at the same time.  If that’s what they were intending by setting him apart from the other cadets, then he was going to truly panic.  Genesis looked ready to fight Cloud at the slightest movement, even if it were just dust falling to settle on the ground – Cloud was waiting for an inferno to rise up around him or a blade to pierce through his back at any point of time.  Angeal seemed to have more of a blank face than even _Sephiroth_ had, leaning against the arm of the couch where he had settled on the right-most cushion – from Zack’s memories, a blank face was supposed to be a nerve-wracking thing to see, for it meant that Zack had gotten in trouble and Cloud could only assume that he was in trouble for some reason or another.  He didn’t know what he had done to Angeal to be in trouble already, but he was extremely nervous even without the blank expression.  Sephiroth, however, appeared to have the least amount of interest in the possible conversations.

                “Cadet.”  Focusing back on Genesis at the word, he saw a hand being held out.  “Hand over your Materia before you accidentally cause distress.”  Immediately, Cloud reached for the clasp and fumbled with it for a moment before dropping the bracelet into Genesis’ hands.  Suddenly, with no skin contact with the marbles, the temperature immediately began to lower from the uncomfortable heat that had risen through the room.

                “There’s no reason for your panic, Strife.”  Angeal’s calm voice caught Cloud’s attention, refocusing on the man’s dark eyes.  Only to look back at Genesis’ disbelieving noise.

                “These aren’t Materia, cadet!”  Shaking the bracelet as if it were a toy rat for a playful kitten, Genesis glared at Cloud.  Cloud wasn’t sure if he wanted a reply but he decided to go ahead, anyways – it wasn’t like he wasn’t already dead while he was surrounded by these three, he wouldn’t be able to run away or anything.

                “Sir, I apologise, but they are.  They are just…”  Cloud couldn’t think of a simple way to explain it, honestly.  “Handicapped, General.”  Eyebrows shot up at his short explanation.

                “Handicapped.”  Genesis repeated, his voice blank of any emotion.

                Shifting uncomfortably, Cloud fluttered his hands in front of himself in an attempt to organize his thoughts to focus on explaining the Materia before locking them behind his back.  “They’re… smaller, they don’t grow, sir.  Easily overlooked by anyone that isn’t specifically trying to find them.  My father collected them in the aftermath of battles in the Shinra-Wutai War, sir.  In his letters, he stated that they were all over the place and were mostly found in places that magic had been used – or nearby.”  Lying a little bit hadn’t hurt him so far so maybe hiding the fact that it was really _Cloud_ that had figured it out wouldn’t kill him (keyword, maybe).  Stumbling over the next few words, Cloud managed to force them out somehow.  “My ma – mom let me pick what I wanted from the la – few belongings my father had and he had a collection of marbles – some were tru – really marbles while the others… well…”  Cloud shrugged at the end.

                “The others were these… ‘handicapped’ Materia.”  Angeal joined the conversation, an eyebrow raised as Cloud nodded an affirmation.  His throat hurt from all this talking, honestly, and he really hoped that the conversation would be finished soon.  “Can we see the marble collection, do you have it with you?”  Without blinking once, Cloud held out the bag of his and his supposed father’s collection.

                “Some of the marbles are mine but all the Materia in there were his.”

                Unceremoniously, Angeal opened and dumped the bag into a now-empty-basket that previously held a stack of magazines that now sat on the empty spot beside him.  Genesis tossed the bracelet to the dark-haired SOLDIER before taking the seat that Cloud had refused, sitting in such a way that truly reflected the man’s flamboyant and cocky personality – his arm over the back of it, sat sideways with one leg crossed over the other.  Angeal caught the bracelet as easy as if he were taking a breath, even if Cloud was worried for a split second that it would instead hit the ground and shatter.  An unfortunate side-effect of these ‘handicapped Materia’ was that they were as much more fragile as they were much smaller than normal Materia.  After a moment of silence as everyone watched Angeal looked over the marbles and Materia there, the general looked back up at Cloud with intrigue.  “Strife, none of these marbles are any different from the others.”

                Realization hit Cloud right then and there.  “Sir, are you perhaps looking for that magic aura all Materia have?”  Angeal’s eyes narrowed at the cadet – who shouldn’t be able to feel Materia without being trained for it.

                “Cadet, your file says that you’re from Nibelheim.  Is it wrong?”  Confusion immediately took over the blond’s face at Sephiroth’s question.

                “No, sir, I am from the Nibelheim mountains.  My mom and I live – or lived, I suppose, on the outskirts of the town.  The villagers didn’t want me near them.”  That was probably a little too much information, even if it were true.

                “Why was that?”  Angeal interrupted Sephiroth’s next question with a crease in his brow.

                Cloud shrugged, looking to the side.  The Generals’ quarters had an interesting wallpaper, pure white with the faintest of blue lines every… it looked like there was a faint blue line every five inches, but Cloud had never been incredibly good at figuring out distances without the help of a measuring device.  “Called me a daemon, sir.  Believed I was a bad omen of sorts,” Cloud knew he had to answer so he did so the quietest he possibly could – which was actually pretty darn quiet.  “Cursed my entire existence, they did, and would charge ridiculous prices for things if they saw me.”

                Angeal’s voice again, quieter this time and surprisingly soft, “And your mother?  How did they treat her?”

                Now that the subject wasn’t on Cloud, it was easier to meet the SOLDIER’s eyes.  “My mom is a goddess on Gaia, no one could match how perfect she is aside from the Goddess herself.  Wherever she went, eyes would follow.  Whenever she spoke, everyone would listen.  Whatever she said, it was sure that agreement would follow.  She was unbearably kind, understanding beyond belief, and as true a heart you could meet.  Now that I’m gone, maybe she’ll have a better life but I don’t believe anyone has treated her with anything less than the respect that she deserved.”  Except for that one time that someone had told her to rid herself of the freak before she was cursed by it – to which she had angrily responded.

                Stunned silence from all three Generals caused Cloud to realize who he was talking to again, causing his face to flush as he realized how much he really had said about his mother.  Soon enough, Genesis began a snickering that only evolved into full-on laughter while Angeal cracked a smile and Sephiroth looked away.  “Looks like we’ve got a momma’s boy, ‘geal.”  Genesis managed to crow giddily in between laughs.

                “Alright Genesis, that’s enough.”  Angeal attempted to calm the amused russet-haired male, before he looked back over to Cloud.  “Thank you for informing us and I apologise for Gen’s laughter.  In fact, our own fire-using General is a mo-“

                “Ah!  That’s good, I’m done, no need to say more Ang!”  Genesis quickly recovered from his bellowing laughter once he seemed to realize what Angeal was going to say.

                “As I was going to ask before Angeal asked his question, where on Gaia would someone who is so ostracized by his town, which is so far out in the middle of nowhere that it shouldn’t have had any contact with any sort of weapon aside from hand-made ones for the hunters, be able to know what aura made a Materia different from any other rock?”  Sephiroth asked, meeting blue, blue eyes straight from the beginning.  Apparently, his companions knew at least something to call the small cadet, even if it seemed to not truly be his name, but was Sephiroth also supposed to call the… blond?  He could see some yellow strands here and there and it mostly looked like the kid had caked mud all over his head, which couldn’t be comfortable.  Maybe this was the same kid that had caught their attention at the beginning?  Off topic though, was Sephiroth also supposed to call the blond ‘Strife’ or should he create a distance by continuing to call him ‘cadet’?  Oh, Sephiroth supposed he would need to consult Angeal and Genesis once this was over.  He didn’t normally call someone by their rank, all the regulation uniforms had a nametag of sorts on the left breast that was only not there if someone had tied the jacket around their waist or discarded it to the side when it was hot or they were sweating profusely.  He could memorize the smallest of details in the midst of battle but he couldn’t figure out if Nall was the one who could whip nunchaku around as if they were dancing with ribbons or if they were the one that liked pretending to be in the circus when fighting in the VR room using Materia only.

                “Uh…”  All three generals narrowed their eyes at the blank expression on the boy’s face.  “Because I can sense four active Materia and three inactive Materia in this room, two of which are on General Rhapsodos while you both have one?  No, General Sephiroth has one, there’s one in between the cushions on the other side of the couch from you, General Hewley.  The three inactive ones are in a drawer in the kitchen, on the other side of this wall.”  Cloud could feel sweat trickling down his back at revealing the ability he had honed after years of having his Materia stolen and hidden by Yuffie.  He had tried locating Materia nearby when he was about 8 years old but had no luck as there wasn’t any Materia, anywhere, not even in the knick-knack shops all over.

                “How did you…?”  Angeal began, confusion etched into every feature on his face once he had confirmed that there was, indeed, a hidden Materia between the couch cushions that now glowed a soft purple in Angeal’s hands.

                “The uh… handicapped Materia, they have a different aura that’s harder to latch onto.  Like, they’re completely different from normal Materia – but they have more potential for use than normal ones do so it’s rather nice.”  Changing the subject quickly, Cloud kicked the floor softly with the heel of his right foot, feeling awkward as ever but much less panicky than he had at the beginning – after all, they only wanted to poke, prod, and question him even if he maybe was giving more information than he should.  “Because of their different aura, sir, people who are accustomed to normal Materia find it more difficult to even notice the magic inside of them.  But I guess I just have a natural affinity for them or something because they react to the smallest side thought when merely touching my skin.”  There was a moment of silence as the three generals absorbed the information, before Genesis suddenly stood back up and invaded Cloud’s space.

                Startled, Cloud raised his arms for defense when he found his left arm grabbed and was being inspected.  The sleeve was pushed up and everything, revealing scratches from a cat that had gotten him before he left Sol and nearly healed bruises from the last day in Nibelheim.  But not whatever Genesis was looking for because the russet haired general soon grabbed the blond’s right arm and did the same, this time revealing a bandage that took up the entirety of his forearm.  Still not what the red wearing general was looking for and Cloud let out a startled ‘eep’ when his shirt was lifted to show off his thin torso, as well as the cooling herbal patch that was no good now over his right breast and a very large, almost brown, bruise that took up pretty much his whole left side.

                Honestly, Genesis was looking to see if the brat had some inactive Materia hidden on his person.  It was fairly easy to switch Materia from active to inactive and back, but Gen has always had issues finding inactive Materia – active Materia, he just needed a place to focus.  So all these bruises and bandages, he had not intended to find.  The one on the left side looked almost as if a behemoth had toppled the kid or something and it was physically painful just to look at it.  Then there was what looked like… the kid had said nothing about being abused but now Genesis felt terrible for searching the boy, and kind of understood that the blond wouldn’t want to admit to being abused and violated.  Still, Genesis had to know for certain that the kid wasn’t carrying hidden Materia.  “What’s the bandage on your arm for?”

                “Uh?”  Confusion had reached new peaks as the cadet glanced over at his now visible arm in bewilderment.  “Dog bite?”  Swirled blue returned back to gazing at the general, causing him to pause in feeling up and down the kid’s legs.  He could feel bandages under his hands where they were wrapped around just above the knee on the right and directly on the knee on the left.  But no Materia.

                “Well,” turning back to Angeal and Sephiroth – one who looked scandalized and offended for the blond and the latter looking far too interested in the now covered bruise on the boy’s side – Genesis gave his knowledge for free.  “Dunno if the kid is saying it true and those are his ‘handicapped’ Materia, or if he’s lying somehow but I can’t find any Materia on him so I’m gonna go with him being truthful.”

                “That’s what that was about?”  Angeal was almost glaring, but that had never caused Gen to falter before so it wasn’t going to now.

                “What?  Can’t feel up cute cadets for Materia?”  Mostly joking, Genesis took his seat again with a short glance at the blond before he grinned at Angeal.  Then turned to stare at the blond as he began to blush a very cherry-like red.

                “C-c-cute?!”  The startled word was squeaked out in a barely there voice, causing all three generals to just stare at the boy.

                Meanwhile, Cloud was freaking out – in a completely different way from what he was freaking out when he came into the building.  No one had ever called him cute unless they wanted his Gil but these were the three generals, all of which are listed on ‘Richest Bachelors on Gaia’ (not that Cloud checked that, really, he just managed to glance at it in a magazine then read it and study it a bit when he realized all three were there underneath President Shinra and Rufus Shinra…), so they had no reason to call him as such.  Wait, Yuffie had called him cute as a joke once, maybe Genesis was joking?  Surely that had to be it!

                “You’re more upset that someone commented on your looks than that someone… ‘felt you up’?”  Sephiroth questioned, frowning in confusion – from what he understood about social etiquette, it was much more preferable for someone to say something nice about the way you looked than if someone were to suddenly start grabbing at you.  In fact, he had heard of several instances where the person was called for sexual harassment when they were grabbing at someone outside of a spar, and Sephiroth understood ‘sexual harassment’ was a very bad thing based on 1) the word ‘harassment’ was in the phrase and 2) often times, the one who had done the act of sexually harassing someone was kicked out of the company.

                “Anyways, back on track from where we started with your question,” Angeal interrupted, deciding that any conversation that wasn’t redirected was just going to continue going on the wrong rails so switching tracks now would be better now rather than later.  “Genesis said, when you could not hear, that he wanted to teach you to control your magic better.  To ‘hone your abilities’, he said.  Also, something he didn’t say, he’s going to hold a grudge against you for gaining the upper hand until he feels that he’s exhausted that grudge.”

                “I do not hold _grudges_.”  If Cloud knew the general any, he would almost say that Genesis was _offended_ – but Cloud knew absolutely nothing about Genesis’ personality except when he was insane and searching for a cure and had been cloned.  However, the little voice in the back of his head that he had always named as ‘Zack’s voice’ said that Genesis was _very_ offended and Zack somewhat knew the general, if he had to guess.  “I merely desire to prove that someone else is wrong while I am correct.”

                “If this is about my comment in the middle of the fight,” Cloud spoke up again, sorta able to understand how that _might_ have warranted a need to prove Cloud wrong.  No, he was not still blushing from the ‘cute’ comment and he had never _begun_ to blush in the first place – it was simply hot in the room, probably only in the place that he was standing since no one else seemed affected by any heat.  “I wasn’t wrong and I’d really rather you didn’t try to prove to me that you are right.  At least, until I find a cure for it.  I don’t know of one yet though.”  Shifting _very_ uncomfortably at the lack of noise and the heavy stares.  Cloud was not really able to do this whole time-traveling thing very well.

                “What do you-“Angeal began, utterly confused, before he was interrupted by the beautiful, blessed, precious, fortunate, holy, golden, sanctified, pleased, gorgeous, praised, happy sound of a song sang by dogs – it almost sounded like that one Chocobo song that had gotten popular recently.  “Zack.”  Cloud could’ve sworn that Angeal was growling Zack’s name – but Angeal couldn’t have been since he was very calm throughout the entirety of the conversation and Cloud sincerely doubted that Zack calling Angeal up was an unlikely occurrence and would be greeted as anything to do with Zack was greeted.  In Cloud’s case, though, the puppy-like SOLDIER would always be greeted joyfully and without any reason for another type of reaction.

                “You’re dismissed, cadet.  Remember to get on the train at 7 o’clock tomorrow.”  Genesis wiggled his fingers at Cloud in a clearly dismissive manner, obviously ignoring everything that Cloud had said.  “Also, I do recommend accepting the invitation of my tutelage, I may even teach you how to redirect magical attacks.”  Barely waiting for that sentence to finish after _finally_ being dismissed, Cloud rushed out of the room and reveled in the cool air of a pleasant summer evening.  It was almost surprising how much time was actually taken up by the short exam, since it had gone from 6 in the morning until, Cloud took a wild guess, 5 in the evening.  Judging from the fact that the sun was now completely down, Cloud made another guess at it being around 7 in the evening.  So 2 hours of the generals analyzing everything the blond mistakenly said.  Man, was he stupid or what?  Giving that much information – he couldn’t lie since they could detect lies but he also couldn’t just not talk, they would more than likely hand him over to the Turks under the suspicion of being an enemy spy or they would take away his newly gained ‘cadet’ status and send him back to Nibelheim where he couldn’t complete his mission.  Either way, the release of information was inevitable if he wanted to do what was expected of him by Diana and Gaia – just… the amount of information freely given…  Cloud let out a small groan and rubbed his eyes.  Time-travel was probably much better suited for a Turk or something, they could walk you around in circles by speaking, but it was not meant for him.

                This was when he realized that the generals still had all of his Materia and marbles.

                Immediately, he turned around and went back up to the door, knocking on it with purpose before he could lose his nerve and would run away.  The door opened soon after, revealing a more casual looking Sephiroth (this causing Cloud to wonder how long he had spent beating himself over the info he had given), and Cloud spoke before Sephiroth could question his existence in the present location.  “May I have my marbles and bracelet back?”  Cloud cringed almost immediately at the question before hastily adding on a quick ‘sir’ to attempt to avoid another lesson on ‘respect’ that would only cause more discomfort.

                Surprisingly, Sephiroth already had both items in his hands and were very quickly deposited into Cloud’s waiting hands, quickly shutting the door – but not fast enough for Cloud to miss the softly spoken words from Angeal.  “I miss you as well, puppy.”

                Now, Cloud was just more confused – he had thought that Zack and Aerith were together!  But the way that Angeal had said those words was…

                Cloud decided to just stop thinking and went on his merry, blissful, ignorant way and forget all about what he had learnt about all three generals.


	9. Day 1 of Being a Cadet

                The ride here was entirely uneventful, the check-in process was entirely uneventful, and the first night was entirely uneventful.  Cloud was almost relieved how event _less_ the whole thing had been so far – then again, even the slightest hint of red or silver and Cloud was hiding behind anything big enough to hide him… which, pretty much, was everything.

                It wasn’t until morning came that something other than glares and murmurs happened – it came in the form of a happy, smiling blond Third class SOLDIER.  “Your last name is Strife?”  That’s how it all began, in Cloud’s opinion.  The other blond, however, believed that it began the moment he had taken notice of what looked like a small Chocobo from the corner of his eyes.  Seeing the nametag was what truly caused him to come up to the cadet and sit across the table.

                “Um.”  Cloud blinked up at the Third, conflicted on whether he was supposed to call a Third class by respectful titles or not since a Third was still a cadet but had Mako enhancements, before deciding it was better safe than sorry.  “Yes, sir.”  The porridge looked unappetizing anyways so a distraction may or may not be nicer.

                “You’re probably wondering why I’m bothering you.  My father told me stories about his two best friends, see, and one had the last name Strife and was engaged to the other so she was going to become a Strife as well.”  Remembering the pictures he had seen at home, Cloud thought, just maybe, that the Third was related to the man who took the pictures.  “Well, my old man passed away a few years ago but he left me his camera and all the pictures he had ever taken – most of them were of those two best friends of his.”  Questioning blue eyes stared into his own, causing Cloud to decide to pull out the picture he had swiped at the beginning – the one where his father and mother were joking with ice cream – and set it on the table behind his porridge.

                “These two, sir?”  Blue eyes widened before the Third class stood up excitedly.

                “Yes, yes!”  Careful hands lifted the photo, bringing it closer to the unknown blond’s eyes where he took a moment to study every detail of it.  “I’m _so_ glad I met you – apparently, my dad wanted to give Ms. April a package before he kicked it, and it’s just been sitting in my apartment with nowhere to go since he didn’t ever have an address to send it to.  I didn’t think I’d ever meet a Strife.  Oh my gosh, this is wonderful – right, Noct?”  Startled, Cloud looked to the left of the other blond to see that there was another Third class, this one with unruly black hair, messing with his PHS screen.  A grunt of affirmation was the only signal that the two blonds gained to show that ‘Noct’ was paying any attention.  “Now, now, that’s no way for royalty to act.”

                A snort escaped the black haired Third as he glanced up at the louder blond.  “I’m as far from ‘royalty’ as you can get.  I’m a merchant’s son, not a king’s.”

                “Close enough, right?”  An easygoing shrug before the blond’s attention was back on Cloud.  “Anyway, the name’s Prompto, yours?”

                “Uh.”  Cloud blinked a few times – the Third almost reminded Cloud of Zack, in a good way.  “Cloud, sir.  May I have the photo back now?”

                “Oh!  Yeah, of course!”  Hastily, Prompto returned the photograph.  “Also, don’t call me ‘sir’, it sounds so _stiff_ and formal, I told you my name so you should use it!  Besides, the only difference between you and I is that I get paid and I have Mako in me.”  He knew it, Cloud figured that was the only differences between cadets and Third class.

                “Prompto.”  A cool voice sounded from behind the blond, as if he were reminding Prompto of something.

                “Be right there, Iggy!”  He called back in a sugary voice, rolling his eyes where Cloud could see.  “So, now you know my name, I’m the only Third class named Prompto, I promise, so it’ll be easy to find me and if I need you I’ll just look for a Cloud Strife, so do come find me if you need anything.  Also, if you come find me, remind me to get you that package so you can send it home or something.  See ya!”  With that, the talkative blond walked away.  That was quite the interesting interaction, in Cloud’s opinion.  Then, absolutely nothing else happened for the entirety of the day.  Cloud was expecting _something_ from the generals but, with no word from them or their existences, he figured he was maybe in the clear now.

…

_Meanwhile…_

…

                “Paperwork is the bane of my existence.”  Genesis stated for the umpteenth time of the day.  Really, after writing out five different ballads, fifteen poems, and twelve sonnets today, alone, about how much he hated paperwork, he figured people ought to know how much he utterly despised paperwork by now.  Instead, they give him more!  Genesis had the impression that maybe his boss had shoved that 9-foot sword up his ass or something – not that Genesis hadn’t been very willing to replace the stick with a rather more satisfying sword, no no no.  He offered, in fact he almost insisted, but all that he had received in way of an answer was a cold glare and an almost icy recitation of the line “if you have the time and ability to write out frivolous things and joke around, then you have more than ample enough time to sign your name on every dotted line that doesn’t specify otherwise.”

                Genesis could almost hear all of his fans crying in outrage at his working conditions, both from Red Leather _and_ Study Group, and decided to write them a letter expressing his adoration towards their worries.  One each should suffice.

                Paperwork could wait, Genesis was sure.  After all, it waited for thirty two works of art today alone, it could wait for two more.


	10. It's now August 30th and Gen is figuring things out

                Moping was doing no one _any_ good.  Angeal had decided that the moment he realised that Genesis had holed himself up in his office after being insulted and told off by Sephiroth.  Usually, Gen would just challenge Sephiroth right away but seemed to be preoccupied by something.  Angeal had even prepared himself to stop a potentially lethal spar when Sephiroth had finished speaking, tensing in the silence, when Genesis had suddenly stood up and stalked off down the hallway.  Even Sephiroth had raised an eyebrow when Gen had not reacted the way he usually would – usually, there would be demands to go to a training room or the VR room where the two would proceed to destroy equipment in attempts to one up each other.  Unfortunately, it had taken Angeal two days to realise the fiery general was moping.

                Knocking on the office door gently, Angeal listened for any movement.  Papers were rustling but nothing else.  Inviting himself in was something that happened on a regular basis, after he had realized that was _exactly_ was the other three do, so it was easier to do so now than it had been in the past.  As honourable as Angeal had been raised to be, honesty and polite manners were the two things he valued above anything else.

                He had prepared himself to trip over trash or randomly thrown office supplies the moment he walked in.  Maybe even see that leather couch that Gen had bought to ‘spruce up’ his office in shreds and tatters.  He was even prepared to see something on fire, which would be sustained until Genesis was feeling more calm or he grew bored of it, as that happened more often than any other type of tantrum the man had thrown before.  Every time someone upset Genesis, _something_ was destroyed or injured beyond Angeal’s abilities to repair.  Angeal was _very_ prepared to see a lack of flammable materials, such as paper or books, except for that one leather bound book with fancy letters scrawled across the binding, burnt into the leather with skill that none of the three generals had.  He had also prepared an apology letter to hand to Sephiroth where he had forged his friend’s handwriting and signature, which stated an apology for adding more paperwork to Sephiroth’s pile.

                What he saw instead caused him to pause for a moment that lasted for an eternity.  The floor was bare of everything, even that small rug that Gen had said he liked looking at as well as it being soft on his bare feet, and almost looked as if someone had polished it to a perfect shine even if it didn’t have that same waxy feeling under Angeal’s shoes.  That leather couch had been moved, yes, but it looked as if it had been refurbished rather than revamped-Gen-style.  The book shelf was still very much intact, but something had changed – the books didn’t look the same as the last time that he was there.  Nothing was on fire and all the paperwork that Seph had given to Genesis sat in a basket to be delivered elsewhere.

                And, behind the desk, was everyone’s favourite fire-wielding general concentrating very hard on a paper that was previously in a folder – wearing glasses that Angeal always forgot the man even had unless Genesis was wearing them so he could read his paperwork or he was complaining about how much he looks like a nerd wearing them.  Angeal, honestly, thought he looked handsome with them on – until, you know, he talked.  “Ang?  When’d you get here?”  Blinking silver eyes met Angeal’s tiredly, causing Angeal to warily walk further into the room.

                “Genesis, have you slept any in the past week?”  Being part of SOLDIER meant a lot of sleepless or restless nights, but that wasn’t the case when you were on base.  Even if Genesis were out on the field, he would collapse if he didn’t have sleep for a full week at the least.  Angeal knew how long all three of his companions could go without sleep before fainting, unfortunately, as well as quite a bit of his personal squad.

                “Uhm…”  Frowning back down at the paper in his hand, Genesis seemed to be counting the time since his last rest.  “I had a nap on the couch three days ago,” he shrugged as he went back to reading the paper with every shred of his concentration.  Translation, _I don’t remember the last time I slept a full night but this should appease you._

                “Alright.”  Angeal tried thinking up a reason for his friend to not sleep for that long but couldn’t figure a single reason out.  “Did you reorganize your bookshelf?”

                “Ah, yeah.”  Barely glancing at the wall of books, the normally talkative and passionate general was very quiet and subdued.  That would worry Angeal more if he wasn’t also accustomed to this Genesis and all it took was asking the right question before the other Genesis came back.

                “Is there a reason why?”  The unfortunate part, was that Angeal had a fairly one-sided conversation for a while – one time it had gone on for nearly three hours of nonstop questioning of the apathetic general.

                “Mm, took a page from your book.”  Translation, _I was angry but decided to clean like you do when you’re angry_.  Which, actually, explains a _lot_ about Gen’s office right now.  Probably took a page from Seph’s book as well, judging by the lack of unfinished paperwork.  Cleaning was relaxing for Angeal and repetitive actions were relaxing for Sephiroth – in the same way that blowing shit up was relaxing for Genesis.

                “Did you go have a meeting with Dummy?”  This was the normal way that they asked if Genesis had gone to vent on all the training room dummies, usually until Shinra was all out of dummies and another billion gil would go down the drain to replace them.

                “No, I’m not allowed there for another four days.”  The ‘meetings’ usually had a time limit for which Genesis had to abide to avoid hogging all the dummies before he could conduct a new one.  He had to wait a full month after they had been finally delivered and replaced, since there was a point of time that there wasn’t a time limit where Gen had gone down the moment they were set up and ready to be used for training five times in a row and made it so they had to replace them again.  So, they set up a keycard system to monitor who was going in and when they were going in and the door won’t even open for a full month after Genesis went to go training, even if he hadn’t destroyed all the dummies.

                “Alright; then what are you reading?”  That gained a reaction from the calm general, dropping the papers with a frustrated huff before glasses were pushed up Gen’s face to hold his hair back like a headband as he rubbed his face.

                “Strife’s file.”  Genesis sighed, glaring down at the paper as if it had personally offended him.  “Cloud Strife, age 14, from snowy fucking Nibelheim in the fucking snowy Nibel mountains where no one has air conditioning, heaters, or even a distinct difference between nature and civility.  No way for the kid to access anything more than a bow or a knife which are very much only for hunters and, judging by both the looks and words of the kid, none of the hunters would lend him their weapons.  The file states that his father died before he was born and, since he was in the war, he probably didn’t even know that the boy existed so he wouldn’t have made a weapon for the kid or sent any weapon home or anything else along those lines.”

                “Are you still sour over the fact that the kid was able to keep up with you?”  Gently asking this, Angeal pulled back a little as the brunette suddenly stood up and hit his hands against the top of his desk.  Cringing at the sound of cracking wood, Angeal instead focused on Genesis.

                “Of course not!  Do you not get it?”  Glaring even harder at the paper innocently sitting on the desk, Angeal was almost certain that it would suddenly burst into flames.

                “Get what, exactly?” Warily asking this when Gen seemed to be waiting for an answer, Angeal was ready to leave already when his friend began waving his hands around dramatically – when people say that Genesis was a dramatic asshole, that was when he was calm and quoting _Loveless_ without a care in the world.  They had never seen him angry.

                “His scores with a basic sword are exceptional, according to Roe, Haymish has stated in thorough detail that his survival class’ scores are through the roof, and long-distance weapons are easily mastered to the point that Nall suspects that he’s had Turk training but none of the Turks will claim him as their student.  Flint is under the impression that the cadet has gone through a war with a stick and a basic First-aid kit with how creative battle theory assignments are completed.  We both already know he’s a natural at Materia usage.”  Venting this seemed to help Genesis relax some so Angeal just ignored the weird dramatics that were added.  “Just who is cadet Cloud Strife?  How is he so good at everything when he’s only a child _and_ he’s never had any training or ability to train himself?!”

                “Did you ever consider that maybe he’s just a prodigy?  Sephiroth was the same way, sort of.”  After you explained everything in detail, Sephiroth understood how to do something easily enough that it only took him ten minutes to actually do it properly.  The whole process, when concerning a physical act, only took a maximum of thirty minutes.  It was becoming extremely difficult to explain basic social skills to Sephiroth as he would apply them then come back confused and with more questions.

                “I would if it didn’t say _in particular detail_ that he was able to do it before it was even _explained_.”  Hissing this, he grabbed the paper off of his desk.  “ _’Before I showed them the set_ , I began my usual hazing by grabbing a student that caught my eye.  Cloud Strife kept up and managed to _disarm me_ before he _apologized for being aggressive_.’  That’s the first two sentences of Roe’s report.  ‘After writing the type of knot on the board and having passed out the materials, a movement caught my eye _before I could demonstrate_ and Strife had already _completed_ the knot.’  Haymish’s report, which doesn’t make a single bit of sense as Strife, again, was not apprenticed to a hunter nor did he have a father to show him the ropes, pun unintended.  That's just the first sentence as every single sentence afterwards explains a new situation in which the cadet did pretty much the _exact same thing_.  Finally, Nall’s report ‘Cadet Cloud hit the _very center_ of _every_ target in his section when the rest of the cadets were still _attempting to put their guns together_.  I had not informed any of the students how to deal with the backlash of shooting a gun and had jokingly told them they could go ahead and practice using a gun _if_ they managed to have the gun put together before the class was over and, five minutes into the class period, bullets were already being shot.  When I looked into his background and records, how surprised I was when I found out that Cloud wasn’t trained by Turks.’  You’re telling me these are the acts of a prodigy?”

                “And Flint’s record of the cadet?”  Angeal, as calm as always, asked from his seat on the couch that he had gravitated to.  Might as well get this over with, especially since it was actually about something Angeal was somewhat interested in.

                “Flint didn’t write a thing – instead, I heard him raving about how proud he is to have such a talented student in the café and he wouldn’t shut up about it long enough to drink his coffee, which was cold already.  I had to threaten him to get him to shut up so I could get my morning tea.”  Genesis crossed his arms in frustration, something Angeal completely understood.  When Genesis hadn’t had his morning tea, no matter what type it was, it was worse than when Seph hadn’t yet had a cup of coffee.  Angeal, himself, didn’t have such a strange vice as a beverage but that didn’t mean he didn’t understand.

                “Maybe a mission will help you figure it all out?”  Suggesting it meant that the next action undertaken by Genesis was entirely Angeal’s fault.

_…_

                “You know, when I said ‘a mission will help you figure it out’, I didn’t mean that you should take an untrained _cadet_ into a _war mission_!”  Angeal was seething.  He wasn’t _mad_ , no, that was a word that _paled_ in comparison to how Angeal currently felt.  He was _furious_ , not just at Genesis for taking his words literally, but also at himself for _saying_ such words to begin with.  Angeal was furious that he had said such idiotic words, he was furious that Genesis had taken them _way_ too seriously, he was furious that now he and his pup were _stuck in an airship because Genesis was too curious about a cadet for his own good._

                A glance over at said cadet showed no signs of nerves or fear for the upcoming events, but watching him proved otherwise.  Blue eyes were glancing this way and that, usually coming to focus on Zack as the Second attempted to sit still without falling asleep as per Angeal’s orders, and rarely did he stare at one spot longer than a few seconds.  Angeal would almost believe the blond was watching Zack if Cloud wasn’t also glancing at Genesis and himself – maybe it was just easier to focus on the squirming puppy.  Fingers twitched in his lap, not overly noticeable but frequent enough for Angeal’s sharp eyes.  Every once in a while, the kid would bounce his toes against the ground where he could just barely reach before he seemed to force himself not to and, along with twitchy fingers, his right hand seemed fascinated with making the Materia bracelet around his left wrist turn.

                Well, Angeal could at least compliment the kid on something – he looked damn good in the Trooper uniform when the helmet was off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case no one has figured it out, now that Cloud is a cadet, I'm going to attempt to keep everything along the storyline that the games play out aside from the stuff that Cloud changes by being different from past-future-past's self (did that make sense to everyone? Moving on!). Also, just in case no one understands what going on, in late summer of the year 0000, Genesis challenged Sephiroth to a one-on-one battle when all three went to the 'SOLDIER Training Room' and lost after gaining injuries and destroying much of the equipment and room. Then, in October of that year, Genesis was sent to Wutai to capture Fort Tamblin when he took many of the SOLDIER personnel with him as he defected according to Hollander's plan. When Genesis defected, Shinra said 'whatever' and instead sent Angeal and Zack to capture Fort Tamblin - seeing as how Cloud is here a full half-a-year early as well as completely different from before, things are going a 'little' differently than the true timeline. So this chapter begins in 'late summer' (I decided on August 30th since I would think two weeks is plenty time for cadets to be introduced to more than just exercise and drills) and ends in October.


	11. Assignments

One moment he was sleeping, the next he felt someone examining him.It wasn’t even that pleasant ‘someone is checking me out – of course, I’m hot after all,’ type of examining either, more of a weird ‘I’m an insect under a microscope’ type of feeling.Genesis _really_ didn’t like that feeling.He got it enough when he went in for his tri-monthly exam and Mako shot, thank the _goddess_ that it had been switched to a tri-monthly schedule rather than a bi-monthly schedule.

So, Genesis tried to narrow the list down without visually checking for it.Zack and he didn’t see eye-to-eye most days – quite literally, the puppy couldn’t meet his eyes most days due to the idea that seemed to have ingrained itself into his tiny little brain that Genesis would be pissed at him for even looking in his direction.Angeal kept his examinations few and far between and usually only after a combat session, whether real fighting or a short sparring.Troopers and lower class SOLDIER were intimidated by both the stories they heard about Genesis (which he may, or may not, be encouraging by way of bribing Turks) and Genesis’ appearance so they wouldn’t look at him unless they were part of one of his fanclubs, which were all required by their rules (that he may, or may not, have had a hand in creating) to immediately quote _Loveless_ should he be in sight and not a single one of them had done so.Which, honestly, only left that ridiculous cadet on the list unless a Turk was looking for information on him by staring at him for some reason.Which was unlikely, because there was only supposed to be three Turks on board and all three were supposed to be up in the cockpit – always an interesting word considering it wasn’t very literal since all three Turks were female and, as far as he knew, identified as such.

When he opened his eyes and saw gorgeous azure staring back at him, he felt lost for a moment.The alluring shade of deep ocean blue held his attention, captured easily and willingly in the tides as they rocked gently, swaying him further and further from land even if he wasn’t willing to call for help.Arresting as they were, there was more than just blue to the boy’s eyes.There was a shade of sea green, the color of the waves washing against the beach and hiding the coral reef that holds the culture of appealing secrets that the cadet would not share.The ends of the earth were darker than the rest of the ocean, giving more than just a hint of mystery to the aesthetic given by Cloud Strife’s bewitching eyes.That’s right, Cloud Strife, aged 14 and a cadet – in other words, Genesis should stop looking and instead question the boy.

“Do I have something on my face, cadet?”Alright, wasn’t the most interesting or intelligent question he could’ve used even if he were attempting to attract the strangely uninterested cadet – not that he was, of course!

“No, I was curious about something but it doesn’t seem as if it’s there.”Frowning, Genesis decided to ignore the winsome, enigmatic blond and looked over to where Angeal and Zack were previously – obviously, no longer there.“General Hewley asked me to tell you that he was checking on the pilots in the cockpit and taking Second class Fair with him.”Aka, Zack was bouncing and complaining under his breath about sitting still so Angeal took the puppy for a walk.Looking around for something to look at _other_ than the blond’s prepossessing eyes caused him to miss Cloud’s falter in words before the ‘Second’ in his sentence.

“I didn’t think that it would take you this long to wake up either.”Angeal’s voice boomed through the space compared to Cloud’s quiet and rough voice.What had happened to Genesis to begin thinking that Angeal’s voice that he had once compared to the hum of a hummingbird through the Banora White trees back home was loud and scratchy?Not that it didn’t have its own appeals, in fact Genesis still loved it just as much as he did back when he told Angeal this to begin with, it was just a complicated feeling and thought process that Genesis didn’t even understand at this point.“Genesis, have you been skipping out on sleep again?”

“Mm…”Genesis tried thinking of a way out of this conversation, one he has had many times before, and really couldn’t find a way out.It wasn’t like he _meant_ to stay awake for days on end – in fact, he rather liked having his beauty sleep and missed it when it wouldn’t come to him – it was more like he couldn’t fall asleep so he usually tried to find an activity to exhaust his mind with.Which, honestly, had become more and more difficult as time went on – in fact, the things that used to easily lull him to sleep were causing him to wake up even more now.Turns out, that Angeal seemed to remember the blond’s presence and shook his head with tight lips.

“Nevermind, I’ll ask later.”Which meant that Angeal wouldn’t let it go, unfortunately.Well, Genesis had one reason to thank Angeal’s distrust of strangers at least.Then began the talking.

“Heya, name’s Zack, what’s yours?”For a 16-year-old, the Second Class was surprisingly not as prone to the ‘emo stage’ as most other teens were.Instead, he seemed to be increasingly happy and excited by the day and it was all Gen could do to keep up with it.

“Cloud Strife, sir.”Gen blinked a few times at the suddenly shy look about the blond.Chin tucked, arms crossed, feet flat, and eyes looking up through eyelashes that seemed too thick for even a Honeybee girl – he looked the very picture of a shy girl in front of her crush.

“Just call me Zack, anyways what’re you in for?”Genesis narrowed his eyes as he realized what Zack was doing.To examine someone’s personality, there was a specific set of things that you had to do to get their true colors to shine.First, a question in the form of a joke.

“What am I… in… for…?”Confusion swirled through whirlpools of blue, causing Genesis to realize that he was staring again.

“Y’know, what’d you do to cause the grumps above to send you on a war mission?”

“I’m actually not quite sure.I was in class when I was told that I was going on a mission.”

“Class?Are you a new Third?”

“No, I’m a cadet, sir.”

“A CADET?!”Genesis winced at the shout, pretending to be entirely way too interested in in fingernails – his ring finger’s nail was a little jagged, he should get that fixed the moment he went back to base.Apparently, no one was happy about Genesis taking a cadet on this mission.“Genesis?”A smiling puppy was standing nearby Genesis’ seat.“You wouldn’t happen to know something about a certain situation I’ve just been informed about, would you?”

“I would hope I know about the situation since I requested it.”The smile fell and Zack almost looked offended before he turned to Angeal for help.Still unable to do anything around Genesis without Angeal’s support.

“Don’t worry about it puppy, that’s why we are here.I’m assigning you the task of supporting the cadet so Strife isn’t KIA.”A sighed reply, more than likely too quiet for the cadet to hear, escaped Angeal as he rubbed his forehead.When he had found out what Genesis was doing, he was quick to assign himself and the puppy to the same mission with the excuse of real combat practice since the enemy wasn’t expected to be too terribly strong – for a First-Class SOLDIER, not a freaking cadet.Just because Angeal had accepted it as a fact, it didn’t mean that he agreed with Gen’s methods.

“Wait, I’m his bodyguard?”Both the cadet and the Second narrowed their eyes at Zack’s words, for both two different reasons.

 _I’m supposed to protect some random kid because GenGen was an idiot?Seriously?I thought this was a training mission, not a ‘fix GenGen’s mistakes’ mission._ Zack was a little offended that he had been taken from the meat of the fight, where he could actually do some good, and put to the side to hold himself back so he didn’t hurt a shortstack that just so happened to remind Zack of his Chocobo, Apple Pie.Her name used to be Sweetie Pie but her love for apples made him change it. _The kid doesn’t even have his own Chocobo, why in the world is he on a war mission?!_

Cloud, however, took it as a challenge of his abilities.He hadn’t heard what Angeal had said, just barely catching a slight movement of the lips, but Zack – yes, sweet and loving Zack, Zack Fair, future First-Class SOLDIER and his past-future best friend, whom he had, unwillingly but he wouldn’t have changed it for the world, become the living legacy of – had made it quite clear that he believed it to be less than the glory he had expected.This wasn’t the Zack that Cloud knew yet, at the same time, it was the same exact Zack that Cloud knew.Except Cloud had met him after he had gone through this mission and, based on memories, Zack had learnt some life lessons during this mission.He had grown because he went on this mission, even if it weren’t the same mission exactly.


End file.
